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THE 



CELESTIAL MAGNET. 



BY DAVID B. SLACK, 



u That which may be known of Goa, is manifat 
into him. 1 '* 



jHogthe title of " Celestial Magnet" <o<^ 
!;a tl/ appear by iU fiignificancjf of the subjec- 

d in the sequel ©i^si??'^ 



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PROVIDENCE, R. L *& 

Hutcl Market-Square, (up stairs.) ^ 

1820, 



1 



THE 



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CELESTIAL MAGNET. 



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BY DAVID B. SLACK. 



" That which may be tinoum. of God, is manifest in man, for he hath 
shown it unto him." 



Note. — The reason for my offering the title of il Celestial Magnet" to 
this little pamphlet, will sufficiently appear by its significancy of the subject 
contained in the sequel. 



PROVIDENCE, R. I. 

Printed by Miller & Hutchens, No. 1, Market-Square, (up stain?.) 

1820. 



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TO THE READER. 

For presenting this pamphlet to the publick, I 
shall make no apology. A full conviction of the 
truth of its contents, was the only motive, which 
first prompted me to write it ; and which now in- 
duces me to give it a publication. Did I, in this 
instance, follow the example of those, who despise 
the idea of serving their own generation ; and who 
polish and accommodate their productions to an- 
other and more enlightened, of which they think 
themselves worthy, and regret that they had not 
been the fortunate enjoy ers, I should betray a van- 
ity and presumption of which I hope never to be 
chargeable. 

I am conscious that my age, abilities, and ac- 
quirements, would make it vain in me, to attempt 
a publick discussion of any other subject, than that 
of religion, the simplest of all things, and in which 
all mankind are equally concerned. Faithfully to 
serve my own generation, to endeavour, as far as 
possible, to ameliorate its suffering condition, to 
' learn its character, and to encourage it in virtue 
and piety, is the only motive, which has, and I hope 
ever will induce me to action. It is my sincere 
wish, that this pamphlet may not reach another 
generation, either to become an object of imitation 
or of praise. Instead of serving our common Cre- 
ator, and affectionate Father, in sincerity and truth, 
the opinions and systems of one age, have ever 
been an idol, to charm the fancies, to enlist the 



prejudices, and to restrain the piety and devotion 
of the next ; and hence the service of God becomes 
a mere offering of the lips and tribute of the tongue. 
If we wish that peace and good will may prevail on 
the earth, let every one endeavour, according to 
his ability, to sweep from existence, that load of 
authority, which operates like a pestilence upon 
the present age, and which, if not destroyed, will 
extend its infection to posterity. Let us not live 
amid the rubbish of antiquity, while our existence 
is placed in so enlightened an age as the present. 
No man is worthy of imitation. God is the only 
proper object of imitation and praise. With this 
view of the subject, I enjoy a fearless innocence in 
offering the result of my reflections to the publick. 

And I hope that my Calvinistick friends, many 
of whom share much of my esteem, will be hereby 
relieved from that painful anxiety and concern, 
which they have appeared to manifest for my hap- 
piness and welfare ; and rest satisfied that their 
expectation of my return to their system is wholly 
without foundation. Undoubtedly they think me 
guilty of an apostasy. But an apostasy from what? 
From the service of my God ! Well might they 
be concerned were this the case ; but an apostasy 
of this character, I hope never to be guilty of. 

I very well know, that I have apostatised from 
their system. But, O happy apostasy. Thrice hap- 
py the day that truth triumphed, in my mind, over 
authority and interest. And would to heaven that 
I could see many such apostasies, from plans of 
entering into the ministry, the law, and all those 
employments, which oppress the poor ; and tend 
most wofully to degrade one half of mankind? to el- 
evate and gratify the other. 



I think that my class-mates, and fellow-students 
in the University, would do well to consider deeply, 
and to investigate candidly, the subject of their du- 
ty, before they resolve to enter either of the learn- 
ed professions. 

To do good, in the world, is the only profession 
which can give peace to the mind, and appear hon- 
ourable in the sight of God. To hoard up knowl- 
edge as the miser does his riches, without conde- 
scending to impart any of it to our needy fellow 
beings,isone of those ridiculous absurdities of which 
mankind have always been guilty. Such as we have, 
let us impart to others, until their condition and 
happiness is on a level with our own. I mean not 
that all mankind should be equal in their posses- 
sions of property, perhaps this might not be expe- 
dient. But knowledge and happiness are capable 
of an equal diffusion among all classes of men. And 
should simony in all professions, cease, the period 
would soon arrive, when we could say again, "peace 
on earth, and good will to all men." 

I wish to be understood, that when divines are 
spoken of in the course of this pamphlet, they are 
considered as a class and not as individuals. It is 
not the object of this work to raise a publick dis- 
pute. This, my present feelings would lead me to 
decline. If it, in any measure, serve to divest the 
subject of religion of that mysterious phraseology, 
which has too long concealed its simplicity and im- 
portance from the minds of men, one of its principal 
objects will be accomplished. I write not for rep- 
utation ; that, I consider to be too transient a va- 
pour to employ the noble mind, and to engage thr 
affections of the pious heart. 



THE CEIiESTIAI* ai&G3H"ET. 



As the benevolence of the Deity has made such a wonderful 
and inestimable provision, for the important and indispensible ad- 
ventures of the mariner, from clime to clime, and from sea to sea, 
I am led so strongly to presume upon the same divine benevolenc'e, 
as to think it has likewise made as wonderful a provision, by 
means of which, to direct the little, but imperishable bark of the 
human soul, across the sea of life, and to secure it a triumphant, 
and joyful entrance into the harbour of eternal truth, and the in- 
visible city of celestial happiness. 

And although the virtue of this Divine Magnet, may, at present, 
be but little known, and seem to be a subject of so much, and such 
universal distrust, as to be almost entirely neglected ; yet the pe- 
riod has been, when many of the human species, by watching its 
pointings, as it stood for the harbour of eternal truth, have found 
their passage ; and have, long since, entered into the full fruition 
of all that happiness, for the attainment of which, they so magnani- 
mously encountered the forbidding difficulties and danger of life. 

As the young and inexperienced mariner, who, fearful and faith- 
less, at first, gradually feels his heart swell with a hope of reach- 
ing the sightless strand ; so he, who follows invariably the dic- 
tates of Conscience, or of the Holy Spirit, as it is called in script- 
ure, becomes more and more confident, that this holy principle 
will eventually introduce him into a peaceful realization of all 
truth. 

I shall first attempt to show that we have strong ground to ex- 
pect such a principle in the human mind, from the care and atten- 
tion which the Deity has exhibited, in providing for the security 
and welfare of the body ; and in the next place, that moral phi- 
losophers and christians, universally, know and believe in such a 
principle ; and last, that this principle is, the agion pneuma, or; 
holy spirit, mentioned so often in the scriptures. 

In the first place, let us see what kind of a director man is to ex- 
pect, as he is considered in a state perfectly free, from all that in- 
formation, which has been transmitted to him by his predecessors 
or communicated to him by his cotemporaries. 



8 

Man appears in this (to Mm) new and untried world, a weak 
and helpless creature ; for a long time, incapable of subsisting 
without the assistance of others, a perfect ideot, as to knowledge, 
though a perfect being, as to the possession of those faculties and 
organs, which are adequate for the attainment of all the happiness, 
which he was designed to enjoy himself, and to impart to his fel- 
low beings. 

By a careful revision of the matchless mechanism of his mind" 
and body, he finds himself (that is his nature) completely fitted to 
the constitution of the world into which he has been introduced. 
He finds that the light of the sun, is made a pure and infallible me- 
dium, by the aid of which, the innumerable objects of creation 
are gradually revealed to his sight, brought within the reach of his 
investigation, and subjected to an accurate survey. 

He finds that the mountain is fitted to swell his heart, and to 
ennoble his imagination ; the vast expanse of the heavens to amaze 
and astonish his mind : the landscape to please him, and to invite 
his curiosity to survey the unrivalled mechanism of its flowery 
vesture ; the gentle river to enrich the neighbouring soil, to im- 
part life to the adjoining fields of vegetation^ and by the simple 
inventions of man, to lighten his labours, and to hasten the march 
of human industry. 

The ocean, too, he sees completely fitted for wafting the neces- 
saries of life from clime to clime, while it cherishes and supports 
within its bosom, millions of beings, designed for the benefit and 
happiness of man : besides, ten thousand tribes of quadrupeds, and 
of feathered kind, stand the ready victims to satiate the hungry 
palate, and to invigorate the fainting energies of his body. 

Man, likewise finds, that the atmosphere is not only fitted to 
support his labouring lungs, and to strengthren his enfeebled fibres, 
but that it wafts to his ear ten thousand varieties of sound, by 
which he can secure himself from impending danger ; and by the 
organs of speech communicate all his pains, wants and pleasures 
to his syspathizing fellow beings. And although lie sometimes 
wantonly perverts this invaluable blessing, by the invention of 
musical instruments, and makes it a licentious repast for the ear, 
when its design was the support of life and the conveyance of 
useful information ; yet it is a standing monument of the benevo- 
lence, the wisdom and goodness of our Creator. 

He also finds an exhilarating fragrance, luxuriously diffused 
through the vegetable kingdom, which has alike admirable fitness 



9 

to the organs of smelling, and serves to impart strength, and vigour, 
and pleasure, to the whole frame. 

Nor does man here finish his discovery of the divine wisdom 
-ind goodness, in providing for the security and^elfare of his pres- 
ent existence. The earth teems with ten thousand varieties of 
food, of cordials and delicacies, while his palate, like a vigilant 
sentinel, sits and separates the deadly from the salutary, and re- 
ceives with discretion their cheering influence. These are com- 
mon to every clime and region of the earth, so that every disease 
bas its remedy, and every desire something to satisfy it. 

Another order of God's blessing to man is perceived in the hap- 
py contrivance of the senses, to secure the body from evil and to 
promote its pleasure. The eye is most admirably adapted to dis- 
cover the objects addressed to it, though it would be of no service 
without the medium of light. Nor is there less wisdom, in the 
construction of the ear. A most happy contrivance is discerned 
in the sense of feeling, to gain information from surrounding ob- 
jects, and to guard the body from innumerable evils. The breeze 
refreshes it*, the sun warms it, the shower cools it, and the atmos- 
phere attempers it. Thus man, completely furnished with guard- 
ians to his body, with corresponding mediums of support, of 
pleasure and of remedy, is introduced, along from the cradle to the 
grave, through an almost infinite variety of grades, light being the 
great magnet to attract his eye and direct his steps. 

Yet no miraculous operation is exerted to enable the eye to dis- 
charge its office, the ear to distinguish the varieties of sound, the 
palate to receive its diet, or the sense of feeling to inform us of the 
neighbouring objects. And although experience gives man a confi- 
dence in his ability to exert these organs, each must effect a cer- 
tain condition in order to a complete discharge of its office. The 
opening of the eye is the condition of seeing, listening the condi- 
tion of hearing, &c. These conditions are the obvious result of 
man's own agency. Nature sends forth no overweaning dogmas, 
to dissuade man from confiding in his ability, to govern and direct 
his senses, in providing for the safety and Welfare of the body ; but, 
on the contrary, she has displayed her usual benevolence, in giving 
to experience a wonderful power, to create in the breast of man, 
a confidence in his ability to provide for his present existence. 
And we should think him unworthy of the name of a human being, 
who should attempt to weaken that confidence, which the Deity 
has seen fit to place in man for his benefit and happiness. 

But such is the temper of the presentdivines, that vrere all the 
2 



10 

men of science on the globe, to exert the united force of their phi- 
losophy and learning, in dissuading men from putting trust in their 
ability to transact the common business of life, they would not 
have a more stagnating effect upon human industry, than many of 
these divines now do in morality and religion, who exert their ut- 
most, to weaken that reliance, which experience teaches every 
man, to place in his ability to love and serve his Maker. 

Perhaps this is a digression. Much more might be said of the 
benevolent provision, which an all-wise governour of the universe 
has made for the welfare of our present existence. But it will be 
at present omitted. 

Finally, the care and mercy of the Deity, is impartially and 
universally exercised among his creatures. All enjoy the com- 
mon and essential blessings ; all are subject to the greatest and 
most fearful evils; nevertheless, there may be some little variety 
in the blessing and evils, which arises from the prudence or impru- 
dence of the individual. 

But, from the view we have taken, there is a strong presumption, 
that if our predecessors had exercised all the prudence, of which 
they were capable, and also, if we should do the same, we might 
be free from most, if not all of those miseries, to which we are now 
subjected. How impartial, then, is the goodness of God in thus 
happily providing for our present existence ! None of the tribes of 
the human species, is doomed to eternal darkness, by a general 
loss of their eyes, or by a privation of light ; none to faint and ex- 
pire for want of a refreshing atmosphere ; none deprived of these, 
fragrances, and of those cordials with which nature has so bounti- 
fully crowned her teeming board. 

What has been now shown of the divine love and mercy in oup 
temporal concerns, 1 think amply sufficient to drive our divines 
from that wicked and unaccountable paradox, which makes the Dei- 
ty more careful and interested in the preservation of the body* 
than of the soul. 

We wish not to prove that the providence of God is such, that 
he lets none of his creatures suffer. This opinion we see daily 
contradicted. All that is contended for, is that he has placed all 
mankind equally in a capacity of salvation ; and all would obtain 
it, if they would but employ this capacity. We have already 
seen that the bodies of men are only placed in a capacity of sal- 
vation. The improvement of this capacity belongs to the agency 
of man. 

The provisions that are made, for securing the health and effect- 



11 

i iig the maturity of the body, make it highly probable, that the same 
benevolent being, who has done so much for one part of man, has, 
likewise, made a much greater provision for the soul, that part 
which never dies, and in comparison of which, the body is no more 
than an invisible dew-drop, to the great compass of the mighty 
deep. The indispensible necessity of such a principle, as can 
guide the soul of man safely through the vicious and deceitful wind- 
ings, trodden out by designing men, is obvious to the mind of 
every one. The eye is not more necessary to direct the steps of 
the £ody, than the conscience and reason of man to direct the 
steps of the soul. And as the eye would be wholly useless to the 
body, without the medium of light, so would the reason and con- 
science of man be wholly useless to the soul, without that constitu- 
tion of truths, which make up one side of the natural, moral and 
religious world. Moral and religious truths, when clearly perceiv- 
ed and practised, constitute the life and happiness of man. 

That which makes these truths appear such to the mind, 1 call the 
holy spirit, or agion pneuma ; mentioned so often in the scriptures. 
All will acknowledge, that there is a certain measure of evidence 
connected with every moral truth, which always introduces that 
truth into the mind, when attended to, and invariably impresses it 
thereon, in proportion to the attention paid to it. This light of 
evidence (as it is sometimes called) has been known, and experi- 
enced, in all ages, nations, and languages. " It is the light that 
raises up and gives energy to the depressed spirit of every man, 
that comes into the world." If attended to and followed, it gives 
to the mind perfect peace and consummate happiness. It dispels 
ignorance, doubt and errour, the main sources of misery, and dis- 
closes to the human understanding, ten thousand beauties and ex- 
cellencies, in the character of God, which are wholly concealed 
from the abusers and rejecters of this heavenly light. If then., 
all mankind agree, that there is a sufficient measure of evidence 
connected with every moral and religious truth, both to introduce it 
into and to impress it on the mind, in such a manner, as to produce 
all necessary action, then it is perfect folly to contend about the 
name of that which impresses the mind with truth ; for it makes 
no difference, whether we call it the light of truth, the light of 
evidence, the sun of righteousness, the holy spirit, the grace of 
God, the comforter, or conscience ; though this last name is better 
known and more generally understood, than the others. 

Great care should be taken, that we get no more causes into 
;he account, than are necessary to the production of the effzc* 



12 

Now the evidence of truth has no more resemblance, in reality, 
to light, than it has to darkness. The foundation of the figure 
consists in the similarity of effects. Light is a medium by which 
alone, natural objects are revealed to the sight, and just such a 
proportion of it, appears to be necessary to obtain a complete per? 
ception of the object of vision. So evidence is that alone, which 
reveals both natural and moral truths to the understanding, and in- 
duces belief. And the faith we have in any truth thus revealed, 
is always in proportion to the evidence, perceived. The opera- 
tion of the understanding is necessary to the reception of this evi- 
dence, in the same manner, as the opening of the eye is requisite 
for a discovery of the object addressed to it. But, in either of 
these cases, there is nothing miraculous, as some would have it. 
Both these operations are the effect of man's own agency, as much 
as the growth of a tree, or of a spire of grass, is the effect of the 
agency of the Deity. 

If all truths are eternal and immutable, and are all disclosed to 
the minds of intelligent beings, of one kind or other, by the light 
of evidence^ then it is a very natural conclusion, that all created 
intelligences, are under the necessity of having agencies, inde- 
pendent of each other, capable of performing similar, yet separate 
conditions, in order to the complete discovery of these truths. 
It will be allowed by all men, I believe, that the happiness of cur 
species, arises almost entirely from the perception and love of truth ; 
but, if men think themselyes in possession of sufficient power, to 
perceive and love natural truths, such as make up the sciences of 
mathematicks, natural philosophy, cbymistry and metaphysicks, 
why should they listen to those paradoxical enthusiasts, who 
tell them that moral truths can just be perceived, but not truly 
loved without the assistance, nay more, the irresistible agen- 
cy of God. But we might, with as much truth, pretend that the 
Deity himself, requires another agency to make him perceive and 
love truth as that man does. With respect 1,0 the perception and 
love of truth, man is made in the likeness of the peity ; else why 
made at all 1 why are these noble powers of reason, memory, im- 
agination, and reflection given him, if he has not also an agency 
sufficient to employ them, in the investigation and love of those 
truths, which employ the sublime powers of Jehovah. 

From what has been said, it evidently appears, that the under- 
standing of man, is the only instrument, by which he discovers 
truth, his agency the power that employs it ; and the light of evi- 
dence, or the spirit of God- as the ancients called it, that which in- 



13 

produces truth into the inind, and «rpresses it on. it. The juror 
decides from evidence ; the mathematician demonstrates from ev- 
idence ; the chymist and naturalist admit no truth, but what ap- 
pears such from a sufficient measure of evidence. In a word, the 
light of evidence is the only revelator in the natural, and moral 
world ; it is the unerring magnet, which has conducted both phi- 
losophers and christians, to a world of new and important truths. 
But, more especially, do we behold its wonderful power and agen- 
cy in the moral and religious world. So much happiness did it 
afford the ancient christians, by revealing truths to their simple, 
honest minds, that they called it the comforter, the holy spirit of 
promise, which should lead them into all truth. But of its nature 
we are entirely ignorant ; as much so as we are of the nature of 
mind, or power. Its effects only are perceived. We have no 
right to complain of the ancients, for calling it a spirit, nor they of 
us, for calling it evidence, or the light of evidence, or the light of 
truth. They were not able to separate it from the truths it re- 
vealed ; and no more are we. The word spirit was the most pro- 
per and intelligible among them, as the word evidence may be 
among us. Undoubtedly they feh a much greater share of happiness 
from the influence of what these words express, than we do. Its effect 
upon the mind, depends entirely upon the honesty, or dishonesty, 
with which vye go into the pursuit of truth. It sets the dishonest 
mind in torment, and the more dishonesty, the more torment ; but 
the more honesty, the more happiness and peace. It so settles 
and pacifies ihe mind of the simple inquirer, that, in scripture 
language, " it becomes an anchor to the soul, both sure and stead- 
fast," holding it still amid the clamour of popular opinion, and fash- 
ionable prejudices. 

Some may startle at the idea, that what, at the present day, is 
called the light of evidence, is the same thing, as was called by 
the ancients, the agion pneuma, the comforter, or the grace of God. 
But, if we find that what we call the light of evidence, affords 
comfort to our species, and are sensible of no other £ause, why 
shall we not take it for the same thing, which the ancients called 
comforter ? They called what they preached the enaggellion or 
logos; ministers at the present day, call what they preach, the gos- 
pel, and tell their hearers, that it is the same that the apostles 
preached. But how do they know this ? They certainly have 
a different name ; as different as the word pneuma> is from that of 
evidence. The only reason that ministers have for thinking, that 
their preaching is the sajne as thai of the apostles, is from a simi- 



14 

larity of effects. The aposttes evidently meant by the agion 
pneuma, or holy spirit, that which tells men the right and the 
wrong, changes their hearts and affections, by the introduction of 
truth into their minds, and by impressing it upon them. But let 
a man, now, be perfectly honest ; let his mind converse awhile will 
the truths in the moral and religious world, let him divest himself 
of prejudice in this converse, as much as he would in demonstrat- 
ing a proposition in geometry, and he will shortly find his sou! 
translated out of its native darkness, into a world of light, enjoy- 
ing all that happiness, possessing all that boldness of declaration, 
and all that patience and submission in suffering, which so remark^ 
ably characterized the lives of the apostles. 

We know nothing of the meaning of these words, which the 
scripture writers used, except by our having experienced, what we 
think to be the same as they relate of their experience. It is we, in 
the language of the very candid Dugal Stuart, " that infuse the 
very soul into every word" of the scriptures. The astonishing 
power of truth apon the minds of the scripture- writers, very natur- 
ally led them to attribute it to some operating medium, which 
ihey seemed to think resembled the pneuma, or wind, for so the 
word meant in that age. But still had they been questioned 
upon this subject, they would, undoubtedly, have acknowledged, 
that they perceived no resemblance, in reality, between what 
revealed truth to their minds, and the wind, or spirit as they called 
H. But little did these holy, honest, simple men think, that these 
figures, which they were obliged to make the medium of commu- 
nicating their thoughts to others, would become the basis of those 
paradoxical systems, which now burden and harass our species. 
'ihey adapted their language to the character, the ignorance and 
the opinions of the age in which they lived, and thought not of 
providing opinions and rules of conduct for future generations. 
The apostles had imbibed, to their sorrow, the opinions and prej- 
udices of their countrymen and ancestors, and now began to think 
it time to teach men not to get their rules of conduct from each 
other, but immediately from their heavenly Father, Him they 
thought a much nearer, better, and more faithful friend, than any 
they had on earth. They taught others that God was infinitely 
more tender and loving, than any earthly parent could be ; that 
his provisions for men were universal and impartial ; that his pro- 
vidence always had, and always would, pervade the universe. 
With a firm belief of a God of this character, they ventured their 
all in order to make him known to others. From the emboldening 



15 

effect, which truth had upon their minds, they referred their hap- 
piness to a pouring out of God's spirit. But will any man be so 
absurd as to contend, that the spirit or mind of God, is capable of 
being poured out, like a fluid, from one vessel into another ? Or 
that, in reality, it is capable of descending and ascending ? This 
would imply, that the mind of the Deity was moving about, and 
did not fill all space. Men often speak of pouring out their hearts 
and souls before God, but their souls don't leave their bodies, at 
(hose times, any more than at others. 

Why, it may be asked, did the scripture-writers make so much 
use of the word pueuma, wind or spirit ? It is^well known, that 
the Jewish nation dealt more in comparisons, of all kinds, than any 
other nation with whose history we are acquainted. This custom 
arose, from the great deficiency of words, in their language. The 
wind, being an exceedingly subtle element, incapable of being 
detected by the eye, but still capable of producing astonishing ef- 
fects, by its velocity and changes, they very naturally attributed 
the changes produced in their minds, by the impression of truths 
(which, before the day of their great leader, they were ignorant of) 
fto some power, not perceived by the understanding ; and which, 
in this respect, they thought to resemble the atmosphere. The 
comparison is a veryyKtqjiH^'c one. We feel the effects of the 
atmosphere, but the eye cannot detect its nature ; so the mind 
feels the happy effects of truth, when impressed upon it, by a suf- 
ficient measure of evidence, but the evidence itself, in the essence 
ef it, is not perceived. If the honest inquirers after truth, now en- 
joy the same happiness, and express the same boldness, in defend- 
ing it, which the primitive christians did, are we not obliged to say 
that truth is disclosed to their minds in the same way, and by the 
same power, although we give it another name, but which, per- 
haps, is better understood. 

I perceive something in me, which tells me what is right and 
what is wrong for me to do. I also am sensible of a peace of 
mind, when I do the right, and of a torment when I do the wrong ; 
I therefore think this principle to be the same, which in scripture, 
is called the holy spirit, and which is acknowledged to be an uni- 
versal principle, a celestial magnet, to guide the intellectual world. 
It has, generally, been considered, by metaphysicians, a faculty 
of the mind, but which has appeared so subtle a faculty, that they 
have almost despaired of defining it. My own opinion is, that it 
is not a faculty of the mind, but that it is a? separate from the 
mind as light is from the eye. The light of evidence. I believe. 



16 

to be that true spirit, which points out to man every step oi hi3 
duty. In the natural world, as I have before observed, there is a 
certain measure of evidence, belonging to every truth, and which 
reveals it to the mind. This is true of every proposition in geom- 
etry, in natural philosophy and chymistry. In the moral and re- 
ligious world, truth is open to the mind in the same way. By 
contradicting the greatest measure of evidence on any subject of 
duty, we feel a degree of pain ; by complying with it, we feel a 
degree of happiness. The faculty which perceives this pain or 
pleasure, I call conscience. But, as the term conscience, is gen- 
erally taken to comprehend both that which gives us a prescience 
of right or wrong, and also the faculty which perceives the pain or 
pleasure of following the one or the other, it may be much the 
safest term to employ on the subject. I shall, therefore, use it 
accordingly, and contend that conscience is the magnet, which 
will point out to man every step of his duty, the only antidote to 
save him from his sins ; and finally introduce' him into a world ot 
celestial truth. 

In the language of Thomas Read, " it is the candle of God, set 
jp in the human mind." It burns both day and night, giving 
light to all our thoughts and affections. Its faint glimmerings, are 
perceivable in every individual of our species. No human power 
is able to extinguish it, or to erase it from the mind. It lighted up 
the path of Abel, Noah, Moses, Daniel, Socrates, Christ, Paul, Lu- 
ther, Fox, and innumerable others, whom time forbids to mention. 
It is a species of language, which the Deity uses, to make known 
his will to man, and which he has most admirably adapted to his 
understanding. Though man may be deaf, dumb, and blind ; still 
it is a sure medium, to bring into his mind, the will of God. In a 
word, it is a voice, which no confusion can drown, and from 
which no torment can divert the attention. It whispers, and the 
Siberian marches to his Lama ; the Hindoo to the Ganges, the Ot- 
toman to his alcoran, and the christian to his bible. Finally, it 
is not in the power of man, to close the ears of hi3 understanding 
entirely against it. 

The virtue of this celestial magnet, is known only by experi- 
ment. When the Europeans first tried the power of the magnetick 
needle, to direct their course on the ocean, they were exceedingly 
timorous, daring only to venture a few leagues from their native 
shore ; but venturing still further, gathering strength at every 
league, they at length reach our western continent, and sang their 
T<* Denm. in celebration of the mighty power ot God. So I 



17 

a-pprehead it will be, iu some measure, with those who venture out 
from the scriptures to which, by education, they have become nat- 
uralized, and who shall take for their guide, that magnet which 
directed the course of the scriptural writers, and which will lead 
them into regions of truth yet unexplored. 

Those who distrust this gift of God, and think it unworthy of 
their notice, must expect that their infidelity will increase, till 
they have rendered themselves incapable of condescending to so 
humiliating a leader. But though it be humiliating* yet it affords 
the mind all that freedom, and imparts to it all that boldness and 
dignity, which make up the life and happiness of man. When a 
man acts up to, and studiously improves all the known principles of 
his nature, what can he do more ? He certainly improves in this 
case, all the talents, which he had given him. But if he abuse* 
his conscience, he does despite to that very gift, or grace of God 9 
which would have saved him from all his sins. 

Jesus Christ did not bring the conscience of man, or the holy 
spirit, into the world. It always was in the world, though the 
world knew it not, as having virtue to save it from sin, as produc- 
ing all that peace, love, joy, long-suffering, kindness, gentleness 
and truth, displayed in the conduct of the apostles, as healing, by 
dictates of prudence, all the diseases of body, as well as of the 
mind ; and as giving a measure of foresight into the events of this 
world. But men have so long turned their attention from the die* 
tates of this principle, and been listening so long to the melodious 
sounds of human invention, that they begin to think that nothing 
can be true knowledge ; but what enters into the mind through the 
ear. But, says Dr. Campbell " it makes no difference what way 
knowledge gets into the mind, provided it be there." If then we 
iud a principle in our minds, which gives us a knowledge of gooA 
and of evil, it is worthy of our highest attention. It is not placed 
there without some very important purpose. It deserves to be 
•lassed among the works of God, all of which hold a relative im- 
portance in the great system of nature. 

It is acknowledged, by the most eminent of the Calvinists, that 
conscience, if not perverted, would enable man to live free from 
liu, and to perfect his nature. They likewise acknowledge, that 
man can pervert and resist, that operation of the holy spirit, wbicfe 
they wish to make something more than the light of conscience. 
But, if the influence of the holy spirit, as they make it, can be per- 
verted, why should that be any safer a guide than the first gift of 
Sod. which h conscience. If bsth aire equally liable to peiversioiu 

a 



18 

1 see no gain hy admitting into their system a different guide iroxu 
what is common to all mankind. If, therefoie, it is generally 
acknowledged, that, by a due attention to, and a right improve- 
ment of that principle, which appears to be a gift Universally ac- 
knowledged among all mankind* that man can perfect bis nature, 
I think it would be much the safest way, to take it for the real 
spirit mentioned in the scripture, and to pay all our attention to 
that. We might as well say, that our reason must not be trusted 
to, because it is liable to deceive us, or that our memory and im- 
agination must never be improved, because they are liable to de- 
ception ; and that, therefore, we must have new faculties of reason, 
memory and imagination, before we shall be fitted to discharge 
our duty ; as that conscience must not be trusted, because it caa 
be perverted. 

The man who pretends to distrust the efficacy of his conscience 
to lead him into ail truth, may, for the same reasons, distrust the 
ability of his eyes, to discover the objects of vision ; or of his ears 
to distinguish the varieties of sound. But the organs of sight and 
of hearing, aided by ihe powers of light and air, are the only 
means the Deity has ever given any man, to discover the objects 
of sight and to distinguish the varieties of sound. To suppose in 
this case, that the Deity ever has or ever will make any alteration 
in, or give any more assistance to man, in seeing and hearing, than 
he has already given, necessarily implies, that he can improve upon 
bis own skill. So, if the conscience of man is a work of the Dei- 
ty, as much as the eye is : to suppose that he ever does, or eve? 
will give any more assistance, than the light of evidence, either 
implies that his work has failed of its object, or that he is or will 
be able to make some essential improvement upon his first attempt 
Men may as well pray that God would increase the brilliancy of 
the sun, that they may see better, or change the nature of the 
atmosphere, that they may hear easier, as to pray that God would 
give them more assistance, than they now have to discover and 
obey his will. 

I believe that God finished his work in making man, and in such 
a manner, as left no room for an after supplement, or alteration. — 
The whole analogy of nature may be brought in confirmation of 
this opinion. If, therefore, by a right improvement of what man 
possesses, he may perfect his nature ; and become a real child of 
God, what does God or what do we wish for more ? had we as 
much again assistance, as we now have, it would still rest upon a 
right improvement of it, whether we entered into heaven or not. 

Let us not, therefore, despise little things, considering the wisdom 



19 

the goodness and love of that being from whom'Ve receive them. 
Though our gifts may be like mustard seeds on their reception, they 
are as much as we deserve, with the assurance that they are capa- 
ble of infinite increase. \( } then, we find that God deals with all 
his children in the same way, and like a kind parent speaks to 
tvin all in the same language ; and discloses his will to them as fast 
and as fuliy as they are disposed to receive it, a verbal or written 
expression of his former dealings with some of them, is no rule for 
the rest. As a kind parent, he had much rather that they would 
all come individually to him, than to have them listening to each 
other. He can assign them their places better than any other 
being. 

But some will say, how can we converse with God, since he is 
in heaven and we on the earth ? Absurdly imagining, that God 
has chosen him out some more congenial place, where, perhaps, he 
has a throne of great glory, a right hand and a left, a footstool and 
a sceptre, in a word, where he dwells in all the ease, luxury and 
authority of a pope. No wonder that vice and iniquity prevail on 
the earth, when the Deity, in the minds of men, is placed at such 
an awful distance from them. But some there are, who boldly 
assert, both by word and practice, the immutability of God ; that 
be is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever ; that he is so per* 
fectly uniform, as never to deviate from a certain character; that 
he appears to the minds of all men, in all ages, on all occasions, and 
in all societies invariably the same ; that his providence is the same, 
that by this all mankind may learn their Father's will and designs 
respecting them, that his residence, and his presence, are as 
visible in this world as in any anterior to it, or that shall come 
after it. 

We feel perfectly satisfied with the means we possess of know- 
ing the thoughts, designs and hearts of each other. And what are 
they? Merely motions, gestures and sounds, which, by a suffic- 
ient attention to them, give us a kind of mirror, in which we think 
ourselves able to see the very souls of men. Yet we see no mind, 
no intelligence, no power, no prudence, no prescience, no love, no 
benevolence there, we see only the effects or fruits of them. We 
see ten thousand inventions, such as towns, palaces, ships, stee- 
ples, arms, and an innumerable variety of machines, all effects of 
a power and intelligence, which are, in essence, hid from the eye, 
though we may have no doubt, but they exist in those bodies 
which we call human, which we are daily conversant with, 
which we see, love, hate, trust, listen to, speak to, handle and 



30 

sometimes destroy. When tbey are near us, wo revere ov de« 
spise them, according as we judge of their wisdom and goodness* 
But yet, that God is much nearer us, than we to each other, that 
he knows us better, shows wore design, wisdom, benevolence and 
is readier of access, will be allowed by all, who acknowledge his 
existence. The effects of his wisdom and goodness, are ever be- 
fore us, speaking to us in ten thousand ways. It is the language ot 
philosophy, that the best poetical description is exceedinglyvapid 
in comparison of nature contemplated in her own simplicity. And 
must not those descriptions of the Divine character, which were 
given in an age, when men seemed to catch only the ruder linea- 
ments of it, be incomparably less fitted to impress the mind of man 
with just notions of God, and of his designs, than the pure counte- 
nance of nature now vigorous and fresh before us? 

The writers of the scriptures themselves, seem to have been so fully 
impressed with an idea of the inadequacy of language to express 
what even they learned of the characer of God from his works, 
and of the perishable nature of all human signs, that they referred 
their cotemporaries to a period, when they hoped that the human 
species would be so enlightened as to lay them aside, and individ- 
ually fulfil the obligations they owe to their maker, as they are 
impressed upon, or written in their hearts, by a careful and dili- 
gent watch over his movements about them, and in them. What 
if men should contend that it was a much easier and safer way to 
learn the human character, by written signs and pictures, which. 
are entirely devoid of those finer lineaments, constantly varying 
in the living countenance, than to obtain this knowledge by au 
actual observation of tbe expressions of all the passions and feel- 
ings, which exercise the heart ? Would they appear more incon- 
sistent than many of them now do, in chaining down the human 
mind to decipher the meaning of those antiquated enigmas and 
comparisons contained in much of the old and new testaments, in 
order to get a knowledge of God and of their own duty ? The 
prophets saw the evil tendency of written laws and creeds ; that 
they made men's minds contracted, uncharitable, and ambitious 
of engrossing all piety and true worship to themselves. They saw 
that the knowledge which their own countrymen had through this 
source, though originally derived from observations on tbe provi 
dence of God, made them boasters of their own institutions ; and 
the most overbearing contemners of the comparatively inferiour 
institutions of their neighbours. Jesus Christ saw their delusion 
Shewed them their errour, and taught, them to observe the growfli 



21 

of tbe lily, and of the epire of grass, if they wished to learo the 
care, the wisdom and tbe power of God. St. Paul perceiving the 
great errour o( the Athenians, in placing him at so great a dis- 
tance, as to make him unknowq to them, strongly reproved their 
folly. 

If, then, God is as visibly present in this world among his chil- 
dren, as they are among each other, what more danger is there 
of our mistaking his meaning, than the meaning of each other? 
And why not get bis instructions as immediately as we get the in- 
structions of our earthly parent ? Wherever we behold an opening 
bud or a trembting dew-drop, there, do we see a certain power 
and intelligence displayed as indubitably as the motion of my pen 
discovers a power and intelligence in me. Yet we are not in the 
habit of getting the designs of the Deity from his movements about 
us, and in us, as we are of each other. Yet were we accustom d 
to this method of learning the will of God, this language would in 
time become as intelligible to u<* as that which we use among our- 
selves. The blaze of the candle now before me displays infinitely 
more design than the candlestick, which holds it, does ; yet I 
Infer from the shape of the cand'e-itick, its proper design which 
is to bold the candle. So likewise of the blaze, that its object, or 
one of them, is to aid my eye in writing. 1 admire the artist who 
arcade the stick, and think him a well meaning man, though I neither 
know his name, nor where he lives. But the Deity, i know, must 
be as near to me as he is to the highest angel in heaven, and shall 
I not much more admire his power, wisdom and goodness, display- 
ed so immediately about me ? 

But if I am taught that he is at an awful distance from the in^ 
Habitants of this world, and that he is inaccessible to them ; that 
inhere is no meaning to his providence, my respect, my love, and 
gratitude to him, will in a great measure cease. 

With what an awe we go into the presence of a great philoso- 
pher, whose language, motions, and gestures are all intelligible to 
us. How silent we are, and how willing to listen to him. Bui 
Lf we had been taught, that his mind existed not where we hear 
the sound of his voice, or where we see his motions and gestures ; 
but at an awful distance, perhaps on the moon, or some other 
planet, our respect and attention to him would, in a great mea- 
sure, cease. So with the Deity, if we are taught not to listen tc 
him wherever we see the effects of his power and wisdom, we 
most certainly shall have no regard to him. But if we look upor. 
tevery thing wc s«e, even the lightning as directed with infinite^ 



m 

more design than the very rod that is erected to reeeive it, ws 
stall always prais-e his hand, and love and revere the wisdom, the 
goodness and skill of the Deity in this world as well as in the 
world to come. The next world may be different, but I see no 
reason for thinking that his presence will be any more sensible, or 
his Providence any more perfect and particular in that, than in 
this world. It is said in the scriptures, that in the next world, the 
Deity will be seen face to face. And so also Moses is said to 
have spoken with him face to face in this world. But what igno- 
ramus will contend that the Deity has a face like a man, or that he 
was seen in the form of a man by Moses, writing with his finger 
on tables of stcne. John says, •* no man hath seen God at any 
time. 1 ' If he be correct in his opinion, Moses' account cannot be 
taken, literally, as some seem inclined to take it. To be sure t 
John might never have read the account of Moses ; but if ever he 
had, he certainly did not understand it according to the letter. It 
seems to be the moot natural way, that we should gain an ac- 
quaintance with our Heavenly Father, as we become acquainted 
and familiar with each other; i. e. by an attention to what of him 
js passing about us and in our minds. Our affinity to him in the 
Mext world will, doubtless be increasing in proportion to our love, 
and adoration of his character ; and our misery, to the hatred and 
despite which we have to his dealings with us But all this, in 
some measure, we see in this world. We see that vice has a ten- 
dency to put God out of the thoughts of men, and to place him at 
a distance from them ; and that virtue and piety has the opposite 
tendency of bringing him into their thoughts, and of producing an 
holy affinity to, and reliance upon him. 

If what has now been said, be true, why should men think of 
taking the bible for their only rule of conduct in this life, any more 
than in the next ? If the Deity reveals his will as immediately 
and intelligibly in this world as we expect he will in the next, 
why should any set of men cling to the bible as the only medium 
hy which the Deity speaks tOj and converses with his children ? 
We can carry the bible no farther than the grave, and some have 
gained such an affinity to their God, that they have left it long be- 
fore that time ; and perhaps in passing from this world to the next, 
perceived but very little, if any difference in the manner in which 
God revealed himself to them. 

That the bible was intended, neither by God himself, nor by 
those w r ho wrote it, to be the chief rule of man's conduct in thsf 
world, is evident from a variety of reasons 



23 

In the first place, if God has designs and information to com- 
municate to his children, it is very probable that he chooses that 
medium of communication, which is intelligible to all of them ; so 
that they might pass from one nation to another, and from one lan- 
guage to another, but still understand the language of the Deity. 
But if the bible be the only will cf God, men are under the ne- 
cessity of carrying it with them in journeying over the world, 
among different nations and tongues ; otherwise they can have 
none, or but very little knowledge of his will and designs. Lan- 
guage, whether written or spoken, is constantly varying in itt 
meaning. Words, sentences, and books, written in one age, have 
suffered a partial loss of their signification, when they have arrived 
to the next ; and by proceeding on through several ages, still los- 
ing as they advance, they must in time become quite obscure ; as 
we see verified in ancient books, especially in the meanings of the 
old and new Testaments. So we see that time and its changes 
will carry us entirely away from the original meaning of the scrip- 
tures, as it already has from the signification of the Egyptian lan- 
guage of hieroglyphics ; and in a partial manner from the meaning 
of several other languages, as the Sanscript, and the language of 
some of the natives of this country. 

It is well known that enigmas and comparisons made up a large 
part of the language of the Hebrews ; so that by a remove from 
the subjects of these figures, which consisted of peculiar ani- 
mals, trees, metals, persons, customs, vessels and diseases, this part 
of their medium of communication, can be but faintly understood by 
us. The bare words of an ancient author give us but half his 
meaning. The place, the circumstances, the company, the cha- 
racter of his nation, and hi? own passions and feelings, must all be 
known to receive his words in the senses which he affixed to them. 

But does the Deity put his later children to all this study and 
perplexity in order to have an understanding of his will ? Had 
every event and transaction, every character and thought, every 
passion and its effect, which have existed since the creation of the 
world, been fairly inscribed on adamant or marble, all this would 
be utterly inadequate to convey to us the will of God respecting 
our conduct. 

The next reason I have to offer against taking the scriptures as 
the chief rule of our conduct, is, that those who wrote them evi- 
dently addressed them either to their own age and nation, to cer- 
tain societies, to individuals, or to certain occasions. And if they 
vrote and spoke to accomplish some object which they then had 



24 

$D view, when that object was accomplished, their writing and 
speaking had accomplished all the end for which they intended 
them. To make any further use of those writings, therefore, 
otherwise than as historical, is evidently destroying their original 
Intention, or putting meanings to them which never entered the 
minds of the authors. Divines, when they preach, are in the habit 
of giving about five or six meanings to every text, so that the ori- 
ginal meaning which was One, is now split into several, by the 
wild and disordered fancies of useless hirelings. 

But i( the scriptures be the real word or will of God, it ougb.4, 
at least, to be capable of only one construction. Suppose that 
Jesus Christ had adapted (as be always did most admirably) one 
of his discourses to an audience of a particular character, profes- 
sion and temper, (say to the class of scribes) whatever he might 
say to this class of people in that age, and in those circumstances, 
must be very illy fitted to the present age, in which there are noiie 
of that class of people in existence. The same observation is true 
of nearly all the new testament, particularly of the epistles which 
were in most cases private. 

No one from reading those epistles, can say that the apostle* 
had the least idea of, or made the least provision for their trans- 
mission to the next generation. But still, since they by accident 
have come down to us, they are taken to make it up in full, a vol* 
ume, which is now made xhe only basis of happiness, true knowl* 
ledge and benevolence. There were but few in those days whe> 
could write at all, and those few must have been greatly burden- 
ed, if they carried many of their writings with them, being alto- 
gether written on parchment. Men certainly at that age of the 
world and for several hundred years after it did hot preach by 
note. And it is very doubtful whether many of them had access 
to the Bible. Had the Apo*tJes lived in an age after the inven- 
ion of paper and the art of printing, which have thrown the bi- 
ble into so much repute, it is possible, they might have transmitted 
*o us some of their sermons, which they called the preaching of 
the gospel, the word, the grace of God. But the circumstances 
in which they were placed, rendered them incapable of accom- 
plishing so great a task as that of transmitting information to other 
~}ges, which would have access to the same fountain of truth. So 
that out of the innumerable multitude of their sermons, We have 
not a single one transmitted to us. Luke has given us a part of 
thvp^f as nearly a<= he could r^pollest them, though perhaps, he made 



25 

some supplements of his own, which was a very customary and par* 
donable thing among ancient historians. 

The scriptures we'are in possession of, ape said by divines to 
make up what they call a complete canon. But had the whole 
twenty-six histories of Christ, and all the rest of the epistles of the 
Apostles come down to Us* these divines then would have said that 
all these writings made no more than a complete canon. Or had only 
half of what we now have, reached us, the case would have been the 
same. The council which collected the new testament, canonized 
just such writings as they pleased, and rejected the rest. So that it 
must be forever unknown to us, whether we have the most correct 
ones, or not. There is great probability that if more of the writ- 
ings of the apostle, had come down to us, they would have con- 
tained information which would lead us to put a less estimate upon 
the scriptures themselves, but a much greater upon that spirit of 
truth, or pure conscience* which enabled them to conduct with so 
much propriety and holy boldness, in defence of the principles of 
their leader. 

My third argument against taking the scriptures as our only 
rule of faith and practice, is, that there is not a single command in 
all the new testament for us, or any before us, to believe in them 
as the very word of God. We find such commands as these, that 
men must believe in God, that he is, and that he is the rewarder of 
them that diligently seek him ; that they must believe in Christ, 
as the son of God, i. e. in his doctrines, which are partially reveal* 
ed to the minds of all men For to believe in Christ, is a figura- 
tive expression, put for a belief of what he taught ; in the same 
manner as people say that they believe in Calvin, in Hopkins and 
Edwards, when they only believe in their doctrines. What were 
the private characters of these men, or when, or where they lived, 
it is unimportant to know. 

The primitive Christians knew nothing, or but very little, about 
the scriptures. They were all guided by one simple principle, 
which they sometimes called a good conscience, and sometimes 
the holy spirit, the word and the gospel. To trust to the direc- 
tions of this was the whole sum and substance of their faith. This 
principle led them to branch out into many inferences, and courses 
of reasoning; but these inferences and reasonings were all ad- 
dressed to the people of their own age. But men are required, at 
the present day, to believe in the scriptures collectively, as the 
word of God, that the sin of Adam hay depraved all his posterity* 



26 

that Jesus is God, (hat God pardons men on account of a feV/ 
hours suffering of a mere man, that they must be miraculously con- 
verted, that men are naturally incapable of serving their Maker, 
and many other childish, yet savage opinions, which those who 
teach them, no more believe, than they do that the Goddess Diana 
fell down from heaven, into the city of Ephesus. Men's under- 
standings are too near alike, to pretend that one substantially be- 
lieves a thing, which to another is a paradox, when they have the 
same conveniences of investigation. 

My fourth argument is, that if all the exertion were made that 
lies in the power of men, the scriptures could not be translated 
into the major part of the languages on earth. But the bible can- 
not be a rule to all, until all have it in their own language. Some 
languages are so exceedingly scanty in their words* that it would 
be impossible to translate three chapters, of the bible into them ; 
and many others not being written must oppose a still greater ob- 
stacle. And even supposing it possible to translate the bible into 
all the languages on earth, how greatly it must suffer in a loss of its 
meaning. Were there only one language in existence, still there 
would be many who could not read it for themselves, but must 
trust to the reading and explanation of their bigoted and supersti- 
tious friends. AH these difficulties make up, in my mind, ab 
argument too powerful, easily to pass over. 

My fifth argument is taken from the manner in which the script- 
ures have been transmitted to us. After the death of the apostles,, 
when the embracers of Christianity had become very numerous, 
they gradually fell into disputes, which, daily growing warmer, 
and all the disputants, having a veneration for the opinions of the 
first leaders in the gospel, began to lay hold on every scrap of the first 
writings to settle their disputes. These writings, though scattered 
at great distances from each other, one part being at Rome, another 
at Corinth, and another at Ephesus, they collected and canonized, 
at least what of them they pleased. So we see that, in this in- 
stance, their transmission to us depended entirely upon the casual 
disputes of the early embracers of Christianity. These scriptures 
after being collected, were held in the hands of a very few, and it 
was not unfrequently the case, that even these few were incapable 
of reading them, so exceedingly ignorant, were the dark ages, of the 
art of writing. War was their element. They thought not, or 
but little, of the useful arts. 

In the further progress of the bible, down to us, there is a period 



27 



related in history, when there was but just one bible in the whole 
continent of Europe This was held fast in the hand of the pope. 
Here, then, according to the doctrine of the present divines, was 
the whole, the complete will of God, held in the hand of a single 
marv But with as much consistency might they contend, that, at 
some former period, the amazing splendour of the sun, which has 
for ages, warmed and vivified creation, had been compressed 
within the little compass of a pint measure, held in the hand of a 
.ingle man, the earth darkened, and all the labours of men suspended, 
as that the real will of God, has ever been so far withdraw from the 
hearts of men as to leave them entirely without a knowledge of it. 
Since the art of printing was invented, the scriptures have become 
more general, and from this circumstance many are of the opinion 
that at some future day they will lecome universal. But this pe- 
riod will not arrive, till the nations of the earth fall into ihe use of 
fewer languages. If we wish all mankind to become the real 
lovers of God, they must be taught in a much shorter and safer way, 
than by learning their duty from the bible. Ministers of the gos- 
pel must go forth, as Paul did to Rome, with revelation in their 
hearts, and teach men,-as he did the Romans, that *' that which 
may be known of God is manifested in men, for he hath showed 
it unto them. " by the things which he hath made." 

My sixth argument is, that, according to our divines 1 own 
sentiments, ministers cannot preach the gospel, without the same 
revelation which Christ and his apostles had. For doctors of di- 
vinity pretend to admit this text in Paul's epistle in its full 
extent, " If any man preach any other gospel, than this which I 
preach unto you, let him be accursed. '* But what gospel did Paul 
preach? and how did he receive it ? by reading a few of the 
epistles of his ancestors ?• No. He says, " I received it. by reve- 
lation from God." But who will have the presumption to say, thai 
he preaches the same gospel, which Paul did, while he is destitute 
of that immediate levelation which made it the gospel in the mind 
of this apostle, and of those who heard him ? What circumstance 
distinguished the gospel in the mind of Paul, but this, that it came 
by immediate revelation, to him, and that it always would come ii 
the same way to others. The gospel of Christ was the doctrine of an 
universal sonship, it taught that men must divest themselves of the 
desires of personal and family advantage, and consider our spc 
cies as the great household of God, having him only for their in- 
structor; that those who were obedient should enjoy him forever, 
but that those who were not should go to their own place. 



28 

But the divines of the present day, make no pretension to that 
revelation, which Christ and his apostles thought it necessary for 
'hem to have, in order to preach the gospel ; but still they say, that 
'hey preach the same gospel. They command their hearers to 
bring forth the same fruits, which, in the primitive Christians v 
sprang from a spirit of immediate revelation, and this they say 
ceased with the first churches. But if this spirit ceased with the 
apostles, all that peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness and truth, 
which so immediately results from it ; must have ceased with it. 
The same causes must exist to produce the same effects. And how 
a man can hold up his face, and say that he preaches the same go*pel 
which Paul did, without the same spirit of revelation, I am unable to 
-say. If a certain quantity of water will move a wheel at a certain 
rate per day, a greater or less quantity of water, will alter the 
rate of the wheel, into a greater or less quantity of motion. Sc 
must a man's conduct alter, in proportion to the number and efficacy 
of the causes which affect his mind. Therefore, if the primitive 
christians had operations on their minds, more immediate and mir- 
aculous, than people can now have ; or if they had the will of 
God" revealed more clearly to their minds,' and impressed more 
powerfully upon them, than it may now be revealed to, and im- 
pressed upon men's minds ; ministers act just as consistently in 
requiring the same conduct in their hearers, which they find re- 
corded in the bible, as they would do in requiring a wheel to 
move as fast with tlnee feet of water, as it can with six. But all 
this contradiction is smoothed over in their preaching, with a sin- 
gle dogma ; and their hearers are taught to solve all their difficul- 
ties in a single word, called mystery, by which they are ready to 
challenge the understanding of anv man. Into this inferiour con- 
dition they say that Adam has thrown them. But with as much 
truth may they say, that the}' have been drawn into it by a person 
who shall live a thousand years hence. 

All these pitiable remains of popery, are yet to be torn up, and 
laid aside, out of the view of posterity, before we get to that solid 
bottom, on which is to be erected that temple of truth and peace, 
whose capacious walls, will embrace the whole human family. 

My last argument is, that no one, from reading the scriptures, 
can infer that they constitute the vary will of God. They are 
merely a collection of words and sentences,' whose meaning is 
brought to them and affixed to them by the reader himself. So 
that all the essentia) information supposed to be contained in the 



29 

scriptures, exists already in the minds of those who read tbera.— • 
And if so, why can they not attend to it as well in their ovvn 
minds, as they can after they have affixed it to the scriptures ? 
To be sure it may assist them in recollecting their information, by 
giving it a certain form and by expressing it in words. But met- 
aphysicians would tell us, that this is not the best method even for 
recollecting our information. A christian carries the precepts of 
the bible in his mind in the same manner as a mechanick carries 
the rules, for building a house or a ship, in his mind. The christ- 
ian knows his precepts none the better, nor the mechanick his 
rules, for having them written. A preparation to read the bible, 
undeniably implies a certain measure of knowledge of what it 
contains. Otherwise, men wonld be in the same predicament, in 
reading the scriptures, as a ploughman entirely ignorant of mathe- 
maticks, would be in solving problems in Algebra. And besides 
the very best labours of the clergy, go in every respect to prove 
my present position. All their endeavours to spread the scriptures 
among the ignorant people of our country, as well as among heathen 
nations, show that these people are in some measure prepared to 
read them ; and if they are prepared to read them, they are pre- 
pared to put a meaning to them, and if prepared to put a meaning 
to tbem, they have that meaning or information already in their 
minds. So that even the very heathens have a partial revelation 
of God's will already in their minds. Every thing which is said 
and done about religion implies a foundation for it already laid. — 
So that the bible is only one of the means, which serve to carry up 
the building. 

The foundation, God himself has laid, and he has laid it in such 
a manner, that all the efforts of earthly power will never raze it 
from the human mind. This foundation for understanding the in- 
formation contained in the scriptures, is what moralists call natural 
religion, i. e. a partial revelation of the will of God. Says Bishop 
Butler, " For though natural religion is the foundation and prin- 
pal part of revelation, it is in no sense the whole oi it." Again, 
says the same author, " Christianity is only an extension of natural 
religion." But, if Christianity (by which is usually understood the 
doctrines contained in the new testament) be only an extension of 
natural religion, are not people at the present day, even heathens, 
capable of making this extension ? If we visit different parts of 
the earth, and peruse the histories of some ancient nations, on this 
subject, we shall find, that some of those, whom we called heathen, 



30 

have extended their natural religion to a considerable length, and 
even quite up to Christianity. The natural religion of Socrates, was 
extended well up towards Christianity. So was that of Melchis- 
adeck, and of that Cretian prophet, whose testimony Paul quotes in 
his epistle to Titus, " One of themselves, even a prophet of their 
own, said " the Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. " 
This witness is true, says Paul. And what do we wish of any 
man, more, than to be a witness of the truth as it is in Jesus, or 
more properly, perhaps, as it was revealed in the mind of Paul ? 
Several other quotations are made from heathen authors, in the 
scriptures, which bear as good a testimony of the truth as this. 

It is, likewise, the opinion of moralists, that natural religion is 
revealed to the minds of men in a natural way. If this opinion be 
true, and also that Christianity is merely an extension of it, then 
the truths of Christianity, are revealed in the same natural way. — 
So that all the superiority, which the primitime Christians ever 
held over their heathen neighbours, was barely a greater improve- 
ment of that natural revelation, which is acknowledged to be com- 
mon to all mankind. And this opinion appears to gather strength 
when we reflect that all truth in the sciences of mathematicks, 
natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, astronomy and metaphys* 
icks, is revealed to the human mind, in a natural and very pleas- 
jng way. 

1 will just give my opinion of the value of the scriptures, and 
yesign the subject to better hands. 

1 believe that Paul had a pretty right idea of the value of them, 
when he told Timothy, that they were profitable for doctrine (or 
discipline, as it may be translated) for reproof, for correction, and 
instruction in righteousness. To say, that they are the principal 
source ot doctrine, of reproof, of correction, and of instruction in 
righteousness, is something which no one believes. It is an honest 
history of the progress of a revelation to God's children. And 
the man who says, that he believes every word of the bible to be 
tiie very word ot God, knows neither what he says nor whereof he 
affirms. In a word, the bible is a book which serves greatly to 
strengthen the faith of the lovers of God, as it teaches them that he 
always was a tender, loving and benevolent Parent, ever ready 
to answer their petitions. It likewise refers to a state of future 
rewards and punishments ; not a state, however, intended merely 
to reward or minish, far what we do here, though the actions 



31 

here performed may be taken into the account. It affords us a 
variety of instruction, which is to be found in but few other books ; 
though the journals of Brainard, Scott, Taylor and Howard are, 
in my opinion, much more worthy of perusal, and their conduct 
sxpressiveof much more devotion, and immediate revelation than 
that of many of the personages mentioned in the eld testament 






THE 



CELESTIAL MAGNET, 



NUMBER IL 



BY DAVID B. SLACK. 



u Conscience * * # # * 

The sly informer minutes every fault. 
A watchful foe ! the formidable spy, 
Listening, o'erbears the whispers of our camp : 
Our dawning purposes of heart explores, 
And steals our embryos of iniquity. 

Young's Night Thoughts. 

N. B. — His in contemplation to publish several subsequent numbers, already 
in preparation, avaraging about 24 pages each. 



PROVIDENCE I 
printed by Miller & Hutchens No. 1, Market- Square, op 8tairj$ 
1831. 



PREFACE. 

I choose to inform the reader of the following sheets, that 
the opinions, which some have pretended to entertain of the 
first part of the Celestial Magnet, are far from giving me the 
least discouragement in my quest of truth. When pure con- 
viction wafts the understanding down the peaceful cur- 
rent of truth; or in scripture metaphor, when the soul is 
moved along solely by the light of evidence (the only light, 
says Locke, ever known to the mind*) it can fear no evil. 

The sentiments, which I have advanced, are by no means 
new, though every individual may not, without some reflec- 
tion, recognise them as having often passed his mind. The 
careful reader, however, will find them, like solitary spires of 
wheat, amid fields of tares, scattered through the writings of 
Jews, Gentiles, and Christians. To clear away the rubbish, 
which has, in some measure, concealed them from the major- 
ity of people, and to give them a collected form, is all I ever 
thought of accomplishing. I have, from the commencement 
of my writing, felt equally as ready, and thought it equally as 
much a duty and pleasure to acknowledge an error as to 
publish a truth. I do not offer this type of my sentiments, 
this mere shadow of what I think, to be the truth, as a rule 
of faith and action to any man. The Deity has furnished 
every man with an understanding competent to the investiga- 
tion of truth, and it would be impious in me to attempt to rob 
him of the pleasure of exercising that understanding. 

Nothing but the pure light of evidence, can reveal real 
truth to the human understanding. And so far am I from 
wishing any man, to make any of mj writings, a measure of 
his faith, that had 1 lungs of brass, an iron tongue, and a voice 
of thunder, \ would say, lean not on man, a mere arm of flesh. 
To my own master, I must stand or fall. The evidence, 
which has been let into my mind, upon the truths which I 
have merely transcribed, is sufficient to convince me, that they 
are not errors. 

* Volume 2d. chapter on enthusiasm, section 13, "Light, true light in the 
mind, is, or can be, nothing else but the evidence of the truth of any proposi- 
tion. To talk of anv other light in the understanding is to put ourselves in dark- 
oeis." 



CELESTIAL MAGNET. 



Many serious attempts have been made, todevelepe and to 
illustrate some one universal principle, in which all mankind 
have been and are found to agree, in which they all have 
an involuntary belief, and which they all receive as a rule of 
action. But these attempts have, in general, failed of their 
object, inasmuch as they have developed no principle of suf- 
ficient universality to satisfy the minds of all denominations 
and sects of men. Some parls of the scriptures describe the 
true principle 

Thus has a large part of mankind, been troubled and per- 
plexed, from time immemorial, to find something in every in- 
dividual of our species, which may justly be regarded as a 
foundation for divine complacency, and which may render 
man a candidate for salvation from sin. What stumbles most 
people, is the wonderful variety and often complete opposi- 
tion of the opinions, customs, and disciplines, which different 
ages and nations have and do now receive as sacred, and re- 
gard as essential to their present happiness and future wel- 
fare. 

But the moment man is made to take his proper grade in 
the scale of being, and to hold his just relation to his God, 
this long day of dreariness and perplexity to the human mind 
clears away, and the great luminary of truth pours in, its di- 
vine rays, to the full satisfaction of every individual. 

Although man forms the highest link of that vast chain of 
being, so indicative of infinite wisdom and omnipotent power, 
he nevertheless possesses many properties, instincts, pas- 
sions, and performs many actions in common with those an- 
imals which are inferior to him, in his capacities to im- 
prove, to enjoy, and to communicate. And so far as man 
possesses a nature in common with the lower species of ani- 
mals, just so far does the Deity treat him as a member of the 
animal race. For if a part of our species be thrown without 
their consent into such a combination of circumstances and 
kind of education, that they are without compunction bred up 
to possess the blind ferocity of the lion, the rapacity of the 
tiger, or the venom of the asp, they are no more accountable 
for the possession of this nature, than the lion is for his feroci- 
ty, the tiger for his rapacity, or the asp for his venom. Such 
men are as well pleased with their natures, as though they had 
been as harmless and as pure as those of the highest beings 
on earth. 



This idea serves to illustrate that profound saying of Jesus 
Christ, when he said to the Jews, that such and such practices 
and dispositions were, by the Deity, permitted to exist for 
the hardness of their hearts. The Deity permits wars and 
all other kinds of misery to exist now, for the same reasons 
and precisely in the same way, among other nations. Could 
men choose the places of their birth, their instructors, iheir 
models for imitation, and the opinions to be instilled intotheir 
minds, and still posess such brutish natures, they might 
then possibly and even probably be guil'y of great iniquity. 
But in these respects, they have no more choice, nor is it pos- 
sible for them to have any more, than in the order and variety 
of the seasons. 

All that the Deity requires of men, is to act according to 
that kind and that measure of knowledge, which they have 
given them. If they have not advanced beyond the instinc- 
tive knowledge of the mere animal, if they have not as yet ar- 
rived to that point of improvement, where moral sentiment be- 
gins, they are in each of these degrees of knowledge, if they 
perfectly improve them, as perfect as he who has arriven to 
the summit of moral perception, and has improved every par- 
ticle of his knowledge. Or if they never pass the boundary 
of instinct, but live and die like the lamb or the lion, they will 
be treated by divine wisdom as subjects of the same famdy. 

Let no man think, that by these comparisons. I am endeav- 
ouring to prove that the souls of the lower orders of the hu- 
man species, are to be annihilated. The whole scope of what 
I have said goes to prove the reverse. And 1 must have 
more reasons and stronger reasoning than 1 have ever yet 
seen, to convince me that the spirits oftbe brute creation are 
annihilated at the dissolution of their houses of clay. Nor is 
this a peculiar opinion,* it is one congenial with the tender- 
ness of the human soul, and is the belief of many christians 
and philosophers. 

But it is a matter of fact, as well as a sentiment flowing from 
our persuasion of the benevolence of ihe Deity, that He treats 
and provides for the different mental states of the same spe- 
cies, on the same principle that He does the different states if 
individuals of different species, i. e. according to their obe- 
dience or disobedience to that kind and measure of knowl- 
edge, which He has given them. This principle was recog- 
nised and most beautifully illustrated by Jesus Christ, in his 
parable of the talents given to the ten servants. The first 
was apparently in a state of infancy, just arriving to the ex- 
ercise of his understanding, and to him was entrusted only one. 

* It may be found in Bishop Butler's Analogy of Nature. 



talent. The second had made a farther advancement, which 
was estimated at two talents, and so on to the tenth, who pro- 
bably had reached the highest degree of Divine knowledge. 
The Deity does not treat his creatures according to the merits 
of those classes and sects into which men have divided 
themselves, but according to their individual deserts. — - 
This was the idea of Jesus, when he said to the Jews, M had 
1 not come to you, ye should not have sinned, but now ye 
have no cloak for your sins. Had those jews, to whom, he 
then spoke, been deprived of his instruction, they would have 
remained in their old practices without a conviction of their 
sinfulness, and would have been permitted, by God, to go 
uncondemned. 

1 see no reason, why a variety in the conduct and disposi- 
tions of the same species, should be any more a matter of won- 
der, or unaccountableness, than a perfect uniformity would be. 
For a variety is created by causes equally beyond the con- 
trol of the individual, and which are equally as much the ap- 
pointment of the Deity. We should think him very unwise, 
who should ask why all the animal tribes, were not made of 
one and the same species. But the same power, which makes 
one animal a lion, another a tiger, another a lamb, makes one 
man a Hindoo, another a Chinese, another an Indian, and an- 
other a Christian, but makes no man a liar, a thief, or a rob- 
ber, these characters must bear the burthen of their own in- 
iquities. When Christ taught this doctrine to the narrow, big- 
otted Jews, he was reviled by them, and they said " this man 
is a sinner, who can hear him." If the holy Jesus was called 
a sinful man, for publishing this doctrine, how much more 
shall I be. But let men throw off their narrow, measured 
systems of salvation from sin. and come down to the plain, 
simple truth, or unqestionable matters of fact, and they will 
find, that this doctrine has a foundation more solid and im- 
moveable than the mountains. 

What meaning is there in asking, how the Indian or the 
Bramin can be saved from his sins ? Perhaps, such has been 
his oppressed situation and low condition, that he has not yet 
a rived to the period of understanding, or to a knowledge of 
good and evil, or is not capable of being governed by any 
higher rule of action, than is his dog, his cow, or his infant 
child. There is nothing very repulsive in the idea, that a 
human being may, through the whole course of a long life, 
act from mere instinct, like idiots and children. This kind of 
action as evidently supposes the immediate direction and con- 
trol of the Deity, as the highest degree of inspiration, and in 
my mind is much of the same nature. Jesus commanded his 



8 

disciples to return to the innocence and simplicity of little 
children, who seem to have nothing but pure feeling to act by, 
a feeling created by the immediate power of God. But the 
moment the creature arrives to a knowledge of evil, and has 
actually committed it, the only way given or known under 
heaveti to be saved from it, is to confess it, and to turn from it. 
This is the way, that Christ insisted on as the only true way. 
And this way is unavoidably known to every one who has 
committed sin. 

We read in ancient history of a certain description of hu- 
man beings (or as some have called them, inhuman beings) 
denominated cannibals or eaters of human flesh. T his class of 
beings, at first view, have the appearance of being destitute of 
the least possible degree of moral perception (that is, a per- 
ception between good and evil) and it is not impossible, but 
that this might have been the case, though, in my mind, it is 
not at all probable. How to dispose of these and the like 
characters among our numerous species, so as to justify them 
in any degree, in the sight of Deity, has been a puzzling- 
chain with many, nearly ever since the good news of Jesus 
were promulgated in the towns and cities of Judea. But this 
simple and benevolent principle, viz. that the Deity treats his 
creatures according to their obedience or disobedience to that 
kind and measure of knowledge, which He has given them, is 
broad enough to admit the faithful even among these wild, 
carniverous infants of our species into a full participation of all 
that Divine favour, which those experience, who leaving all 
that's earthly, have entered into the more pure and unsullied 
kingdom of God. As many of these cannibals as have improv- 
ed that talent of knowledge, which they have received (no 
matter through what instruments or manner of education) " are 
good and faithful servants, and have entered into the joy of 
their Lord." But the moment that the magnet of Divine truth 
began to tremble in the breast of any of these seemingly cruel 
beings, and to stand strongly for the harbour of integrity , justice 
and mercy, they that moment became answerable and pun- 
ishable for their iniquities. Those beings most certainly had 
no more sins to be saved from, than they had actually com- 
mitted, and were actually sensible of. For a salvation from 
sin, supposes a conviction of sin. else the brute creation stand 
in need of salvation as well as men. 

It must be recollected, that the distinction of species and 
genera into which the vast chain of beings has been divided, 
is the work of men ; and that the Deity does not deal with 
his creatures according to the divisions and subdivisions of 
men, but individually and according to the good, or bad use, 



which they have made of that talent, which he has given them. 
Men do not shorter, the work ol the I)eii\ bj iheir division* 
and subdivisions of his creatures, however philosophical or 
ingenious. He acts in reference to none of their doings, but 
according to his own good will and pleasure. 

Undoubtedly, many of our day would be almost confounded, 
should they be informed that something like the cannibalism of 
which I have been speaking, existed, or was in danger of ex- 
isting, under all the light of the covenant ol Moses, and of the 
instruction of the Jewish priesthood. The 27th, 28th, and 
29th verses of the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus, reads 
thus — s * And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but 
walk contrary unto me ; then will 1 walk contrary unto you 
also, in my fury, and I, (God,) even I, will chastise }ou seven 
times for your sins, and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and 
the flesh of your daughters shall ye oat." li this state of things 
could exist among individuals of the Jewish nation ; and if 
these individuals could still be in a salvable state, it should 
be no kind of marvel, that the same state of things can exist 
at other periods, and in other parts of the world, upon the 
same principle. The verses above quoted represent rather a 
degenerate state of the Israelites, than an uncultivated state : 
and the degeneracy here implied, is represented as preparing 
them for this lamentable act ofmUery. Had they been bred 
up to this conduct, like those animals, which instinct impels 
to prey upon each other, they would have been* like those 
carmverous tribes, justified in the mind of Deity. For in the 
Words of the pious Young, they 

" Who do the best their circumstance allow, 
4 * Do well, act nobly ; angels could no more." 

But the Jews having departed from their integrity, grew 
gradually in iniquity, till the misery of their degeneracy was 
but a just, and an equitable punishment for their wickedness. 

How insufficient is any one rode of human laws, or even 
any one thousand, or one million of codes, to reach the men- 
tal slates and the various degrees of the improvements of the 
human species. Mm as an individual is continually passing 
out of one state of existence into another, somewhat new and 
untried; and if he resigns himself, unreservedly, to the light 
of evidence, even day, every moment, seems to give hirn a 
new birth; and like our noble ancestor, Columbus, he, ingen- 
uous, sing* his jojous Te Deum at his entry into every new 
world. Not so he who is confined to the circular marches of 
an idolised theory : his faculties seem rather to wither and de- 
cay at every step, aud far from progressing, they ignobly and 



selfishly remain in the womb of everlasting immaturity .^ 
Who, but Thou, O mighty God, art able to govern, to reward, 
and to punish (his vast chain of being, which from Thee began. 

It has been an inexplicable mystery with many, how man 
can be capable of inheriting, receiving, or contracting such a 
state of mind, as to punish, torture and even to slay his fellow- 
men and himself, and still feel justified and innocent in his 
doings. But perhaps, to these very persons, it is no myste- 
ry, how animals of a lower order, impelled by an instinct from 
God, can prey upon each other, or how a man can lose his- 
sight, and in consequence of it fail from a precipice, and end 
his existence, or how the Deity Can send a pestilence, a fam» 
ine, or an earthquake, and destroy thousands of beings at once. 
The truth of the matter is, that men try to solve these things 
upon a wrong principle, and get perplexed and bewildered 
like the young arithmetician, who attempts to divide his shil- 
lings to get them into pence. 

Men grow up like trees, according to the soil in which they 
are planted ; they differ in colour, in features and in stature ; 
and in most of the opinions, and sentiments, which they imbibe, 
they have no more choice and agency, than they have in the 
growth of their bodies, or in the proportion and consistency 
of their features. The Hindoo walks up to the flames of death 
with the same composure, and from the same principle, that 
he walks up to the table of refreshment. The Chinese puts 
the fatal knife to the neck of his aged sire, with the same 
composure, and from the ^ame principle, that he puts the foot 
of his infant into an iron shoe, or bathes himself in the re- 
freshing river. The Christian warriour who is sincere, 
marches up in the front of death, and sheathes his bayonet in 
the bosom of his brother, with the same composure, and from 
the same principle, that he seats himself at the table of his 
Lord. All happy, all without a compunction. O mysterious 
Deity, how unbounded is. thy mercy, how marvellous is thy 
wisdom. O may I ever receive the rod from thy hand, with 
as much love as 1 do thy greatest blessings. It appears to 
matter not what our natures are, provided they are innocent, 
happy, and the gifts of God. 

On the principle, that mer are dealt with according to their 
obedience, or disobedience to that kind and measure of 
knowledge, which they possess, and on no other principle, can 
the covenant, the conduct, and the dispositions of Moses and 
the Israelites, be justified and regarded as divine. This 
system of religious policy, and its subjects have been the 
common mark, at which the shafts of malignant and shallow 
philosophy, have for ages, been hurled. No doubt, but that 



n 

in many respects, it was a bloody system, but no more so than 
many now in existence. It was the best that Moses and 
the Israelites were capable of receiving, and consequently, 
was founded upon philosophical and divine principles. But 
stiil the person, who reads many of the laus and commands of 
the old covenant, however divine in their origin, will be ready 
to say that the new and better covenant, of which Jesus Christ 
was the mediator, was seasonably introduced. This covenant, 
(instead of binding whole nations, like the former, which was 
but a shadow of the new) binds every individual immediately 
to his God, makes him a king over the province of his own 
heart, and a priest to get his knowledge immediately from his 
God. It is not in writing. 

But according to that palpable and unwarranted assump- 
tion of many Calvinists, " that the Deity judges all mankind 
by the same identical rule,"* which some of our species never 
knew, and many never were capable of knowing, the whole 
system of Moses, must be considered as impious. No wonder 
that they tremble so much at infidelity, when the brittle, silken 
thread upon which they hang, is of their own spinning, and 
perhaps will break of itself, even under the soundest slumbers 
of infidelity* How can the Calvinist reconcile with his scholas- 
tick rule of salvation, this statuie which Moses delivered in the 
name of Go J. Levit. chap. xxi. 9(b. verse. '* And the daughter 
of any pile st. if she profane herself by playing; the harlot, she 
profanetk her father : she shall be burnt with fir eS** A funeral 
pile prepared for the daughter of a clergyman, or a layman, 
would at this day, let her be ever so great a prostitute, be in- 
supportable. The dullest sympathies of the pirate, would be so 
roused at such a spectacle, that he would involuntarily drag 
the victim trom the angry flames. That this Mosaic statute 
was of divine authority, 1 have no doubt, but it originated in 
a time, and was applicable to a people, which do not now 
exist, in Christendom, though they may in other parts of the 
world. 

A class of men called Christians, long ago threw off the 
burdensome garb of the Mosaic covenant, as they did their 
woollen garments ai the arrival of the vernal season, and left 
nothing remaining, but that divine principle of truth, which 
convinces every man of his sins and justifies him in his integ- 
rity. John the Baptist planted the seeds of righteousness, 
Jesus of Nazereth watered and nurtured the scions, and his 
disciples prepared them for the garner of God Thus, step 
after step, one dispensation preparing for another, did hu- 
man forms, and rules, and disciplines recede, till the subjects 

* I mean the bible. 



12 

of the gospel triumphantly sang "the kingdom of God is 
truly come on eartn." But soon the scene changed ; the 
veil of sVloses began again gradually to be let down, and form 
after form, rule after rule, and creed after creed, was gradu- 
ally enforced ; the slumber of- death soon commenced ; chains 
of slavery Were forged amid the general slumber, and men 
shrouded in a lethargy, fatal to their improvement, knew hut 
little of their condition till Fenelon, Molinos and Fox announc- 
ed again the rising of the sun of righteousness. 

In my father's house, said the Divine Jesus, are many man- 
sions : had it not been so 1 would have told you. I go to 
prepare a place for you i. e. by my going away, your de- 
pendance on my personal instruction will be cut off, and 
placed on God, who alone can admit you into his kingdom. 
In other places, it is said that the heart of man is the house 
or temple of God. consequently, by many mansions, he must 
have meant that there were many different states of the human 
soul equally acceptable to the divine being, and that by his 
goin^ away their acceptability would be perfected. God is 
represented as coming into this world in the form of a servant, 
but this must be a fieure, for where could He come from? 
Is He any more present in any other world, than in this? 
He comes in the form of a servant to every heart that will 
hear, and receive what he brings, viz : a robe of righteousness. 
By the phrase, coming, &c. nothing more could have been 
meant, than a new perception of his power in consequence of 
the abolition of the veil of prejudice in the human mind. 
The kingdom of God is represented as being withm those, who 
obey him in heart. These scriptures clearly show the dif- 
ference between the Christian's heaven and the Mahometan's, 
which is a place of locality, and consequently at a certain dis- 
tance, and in a certain direction from the earth. But to con- 
clude ; let no man think, that God will justify him in his sins: 
No, Pe commands all who know what sin is, to flee from it a6 
from a deadly thing. He never will let the ftithful go unre- 
warded, nor the guilty escape the punishment of their iniqui- 
,4ie&. 



mm? 



the 



CELESTIAL MAGNET, 



Dumber m, 



JSY DAVID F. SLACK* 



Proud men, suppress your scorn, forget my youth, 
Weigh well my reasons, and then judge their truth j 
If these you find scholastick, or unsound. 
Point out their weakness, and I'll yield the ground, 



PROVIDENCE I 

Printed by Miller & Hutchens, No. 1, Market- Square, up stairs, 
1821. 



\ 



PREFACE. 



1 have chosen the celebrated John Locke to preface this 
number of the Magnet. Speaking of a particular class of 
men whose understandings had been cast into a mould and 
fashioned just to the size of a received hypothesis, he makes 
the following admirable remarks. " Would it not be an in- 
sufferable thing for a learned professor, and that which his 
scarlet would blush at, to have his authority of forty years 
standing, wrought out of hard Greek and Latin, with no small 
expense of time and candle, and confirmed by general tradi- 
tion and a reverend beard, in an instant overturned by an 
upstart novelist ! Can any one expect that ne should be made 
to confess, that what he taught his scholars forty years ago was 
all error and mistake ; and that he sold them hard words and 
ignorance at a very dear rate ? What probabilities I say, are 
sufficient to prevail in such a case. And who ever, by the 
most cogent arguments, will be prevailed with, to disrobe 
himself at once of all his old opinions and pretences to knowl- 
edge and learning, which, with hard study, he hath been la- 
bouring for, and turn himself out stark naked in quest of fresh 
or new notions ? All the arguments that can be used, will be 
as little able to prevail, as the wind did with the traveller to 
p3rt with his cloak, which he held only the faster." 

" Earthly minds, like mud walls, resist the strongest batte- 
ries ; and though, perhaps, sometimes the force of a clear ar- 
gument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless 
stand firm, and keep out the enemy truth, that would captivate 
or disturb them." To the above, I shall make no addition. 



INTRODUCTION. 



As the subsequent dissertation is rather intended to expose 
the .aise opinions of others than to establish a new system, 
some candid persons may think, that it does away all their 
religion, and that they have nothing in it offered them, as a 
rule of faith and duty. But if such is the nature of your re- 
ligion, whoever you are, that it can be done away by the 
power of human invention and reason, the sooner you realize 
its destruction the better and the safer it will be for you. If 
you harbour such fearful apprehensions as these, is it not a 
clear indication, that you look not for the kingdom of heaven 
where only it is to be found ; that is, in your own hearts, the 
true and only temple and throne of Almighty God. And if 
you are looking for any other kingdom of God than that with- 
in you, your hopes and fears are of your own fabrication, and 
will assuredly fail you. 

But if, in scripture metaphor, you suffer your old heaven 
and earth to be done away, and regard the kingdom of God as 
a grain of mustard seed placed in the heart of man (however 
unfashionable this glorious kingdom may appear, thus re- 
duced) you are on that rock, where the frightful surges of 
calumny and falsehood may beat, but cannot remove you. — 
On the other hand, if the temple of your hearts is not so far 
swept of its wickedness, fraud, injustice and deceit, and gar- 
nished with confession, restitution and repentance, as to ad- 
mit that little seed of divine power and counsel, called con- 
science, to discharge its office, unimpeded by your obstinacy 
and self-importance, you have closed the door of God's 
kingdom against yourselves. 

1 believe that all our knowledge of the Deity and of religion 
amounts in the commencement of it to no more than this, 
there is a powerful something in the human mind which makes 
a distinction among our thoughts, affections and actions, into 
what is called right and wrong. This powerful something 
which makes this distinction is no less and no other, than the 
God whom all men obey or disobey, by whom all men are tor- 
mented or made happy, a power over which we have no con- 
trol. 



We have power to remember or not to remember, to rea- 
son or not to reason, to reflect or not to reflect. But in spite 
of all our power, we are convicted if we do some things, and 
approved if we do others. Some attribute these convictions 
and approbations to conscience, by which, they say, they 
mean no more than a faculty of the mind. But if conscience 
is no more than a capacity of the mind, and at the same time 
the origin of conviction and approbation, why have not men 
power to use and govern this capacity, to convict and approve 
themselves at their pleasure ? Nothing is more evident, than 
that, when men speak of the stings, the convictions, and the ap- 
probations of conscience, they include in this term, besides a 
capacity of the mind, an omnipotent, omnipresent, uncon- 
trolable power, which is as distinct from the mind as light is 
from the eye, and which, by acting upon a capacity of the 
mind, produces the sense of right and wrong, in like manner 
as the light of the sun, acting upon the eye, produces the phe- 
nomena of vision ; whence the foundation and propriety of 
that figurative expression in scripture, *" God is light." 

To confirm and more clearly illustrate w r hat I have already 
said upon this important subject, 1 am happy in being able to 
bring the testimony of one of the most profoundly erudite and 
apostolic men that ever lived, the Abbe Fenelon. Says this 
truly divine personage, in enumerating the self evident propo- 
sitions of religion (Guyon, vol. 2.) " it is easy to perceive 
that our feeble reason is continually set to rights by another 
superior reason, which we consult within ourselves, and which 
corrects us. This reason we cannot change, because it is 
immutable ; but it changes us, because we have need of it. 
All consult this, every where. It answers in China as in 
France and America. It does not divide itself in communi- 
cating itself. The light it gives me takes nothing from those 
who were before filled with it. It communicates itself, at all 
times, immeasurably, and is never exhausted. It is the Sun, 
which enlightens minds, as the outward sun does bodies. 
This light is eternal and immense. It comprehends all time 
as well as all space. It is not myself* it reproves and cor- 
rects me, against my will. It is then above me, and above 
all weak and imperfect men as I am. This supreme reason, 
which is the rule of mine, this wisdom from which every wise 
man receives his, this supreme spring of light is the God 
whom we seek." 

This admirable illustration of the rule of life, from the mas- 
terly pen of Fenelon, is worthy of the most candid and scru- 
pulous attention. It at once gives a line by. which to deci 
pher the mystical and hyperbolical phraseology of scripture. 



and an imperishable rule to measure every sentiment and 
opinion, which has ever been spoken or written by man. 

This divine principle being all that we feel and know of 
the Deity, we may safely pronounce ail other opinions and 
conjectures, the visionary fondlings of a vain and idle curios- 
ity. For since all our knowledge of matter is confined to its 
qualities, and of mind 10 its actual effects, how can we move 
one step in safety from our actual experience of the operation 
of this su-preme reason, without substituting conjecture for true 
knowledge. 

How idle and impertinent do all those reasonings, or rather 
wranglings appear, which have been employed to determine, 
when or how the earth and the planets were created, or 
whether they were created at all : as though by admitting or 
proving the creation of the universe, we could obtain a bet- 
ter comprehension of the nature of the Deity. All that is 
required of man, is to acquaint himself with, and to believe 
what does actually exist ; and to obey no other power, than 
that which actually torments him if he disobeys, and rewards 
his obedience with felicity. Those gods and deities, whose 
existence men prove, by a course of reasoning, and whose be- 
ing is doubtful or probable according to the number ©f the 
testimonies and the nature of the evidence upon which they 
found their conclusions, or the fertility and vivacity of his 
genius who manages the evidences, are such brittle and deli- 
cate creatures as to require the vigilance of an empire of 
Priests to keep them in any tolerable shape and consistency. 
They have no resemblance to that God, whose throne is the 
heart of man ; and consequently those who serve them being 
like unto them, have no resemblance to the true God. 

it is by following the counsel of that supreme reason alone, 
which anchored the soul of the Abbe Fenelon, that man can 
receive the impress of the Deity, or be qualified to discharge 
his minutest duties. Under the conduct of this principle, 
water baptisms, the washing of feet, sprinklings, traditionary 
suppers, tritheism, and sanguinary atonements, will appear 
but the melancholy vestiges of the Romish harlot. And 
though the time was, when some of these traditions were the 
badges of apostolic purity and simplicity ; yet when they are 
used by those, who deny the power, the efficiency and the en- 
tire guidance of that supreme reason, obedience to which 
constituted the worth and essence of the apostolic life, they 
become signs, more ridiculous and melancholy, than those of 
the merchant, whose extravagance and dissipation has ruined 
his fortune, drained his stores and left him nothing to distin- 
guish him from the beggar or the vagabond, but his signs and 
advertisements. 



CELESTIAL MAGNET. 



When articles of religion are proposed to our consideration, 
it is very desirable to know the precise reasons on which they 
are founded. For the pleasure we take in the contemplation 
of such articles, must ever consist in the full understanding of 
them. The reasons, by virtue of which, the Christian Church 
has for the space of seventeen hundred years, called certain 
books and epistles of the Bible, the New Testament, are to 
me wholly unknown, and consequently, this article of religion 
is, to me, rather the occasion of disgust, than of pleasure. For 
neither the persons who composed those writings, the nature 
of the writings themselves, nor any thing which they contain, 
afford us the least idea, that they were intended for any thing 
like a testament or covenant.* If those writings had been 
designed for a testament, why were they not put in the form, 
of one ? Why do we not see some one person standing forth, 
as the mediator of this covenant ; the people acknowledging 
its validity, and the Deity swearing by himself, to keep it from 
generation to generation ? All this should have been done, 
had those writings so denominated been a real testament. 
But so far are those writings from exhibiting anything of this 
kind, that they explicitly and unequivocally condemn the 
very act (viz. an oath) by which written covenants could, 
among the fsraelites. be rendered valid. 

It is true, that the scriptures speak of a new testament in a 
very unequivocal manner. But where do they intimate that 
they., or any part of them, are designed for such a purpose ? 
Now, as it must be evident to the mind of every considerate 
person, that those writings styled the new testament, bear no 
such character, it is incumbent on us to show from scripture 

* It may be proper to apprise the reader that these two terms, testament 
i and covenant, are used in a synonymous sense, for in the original Greek, the 
word which is sometimes translated testament, and at others, covenant, is the 
same, viz. Dialhekb. In the Evangelists, this word is translated testament % 
and in the eighth chapter of Hebrews, covenant, which clearly shows the lurk- 
ing prejudice of the translators.. 




10 

and experience, what is the true nature of that, which the 
scriptures style the new testament or covenant. 

In the thirty-first chapter of the prophet Jeremiah, we have 
so complete and unequivocal a definition of it, that it seems 
almost incredible that the Christian Church should have been 
so grossly mistaken about the nature of it. The prophet com- 
mences in this very explicit manner : " I will make a new cov- 
enant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah r y 
not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, 
in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of 
the land of Egypt ; because they continued not in ny cove- 
nant, and 1 regarded them not, saith the Lord. , For this is the 
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those 
days, saith the Lord -, I will put my law in their hearts and 
write it in their minds. And I will be to them a God, and 
they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every 
man his neighbour, saying, know ye the Lord, for all shaH 
know him, from the least of them to the greatest." 

Now can any man be so wofully deluded, as to suppose 
that those writings styled the new testament, answer in any 
manner to this definition of the prophet ! Mark, that it was 
not to be according to the old one, which was in writing ; bu£ 
this is to be its nature, its glory and its advantage ; that it is 
to be imprinted immediately on the heart, and in the mind. 
This is the idea that Paul had of the new testament. In the 
eighth chapter of Hebrews he quotes the whole definition of 
the prophet, word for word, and then adds, u In that he saith 
a new covenant he hath made the first old. Now that which 
decayeth and waxelh .old is ready to vanish away." Paul 
here quotes this definition of the prophet to shew the Hebrews 
that the old testament of Moses, with all its appendages, must 
be entirely abolished, before the new one could come into full 
operation, with all its advantages. 

According to the sense of these two scripture writers, the 
new testament stood not merely in opposition to what are call- 
ed the ceremonials of the law of Moses, to a particular order 
of priests, and a few other trifling things, which, christian de- 
nominations have omitted, but to the whole written covenant 
of Moses. The main beauty, utility and Mm of the new cov- 
enant was to consist in its entire freedom from the words, the 
"writings and the definitions of men. 

This being its nature, it places all mankind equally in a 
condition to obtain a knowledge of God. Its whole scope and 
tendency is to draw the attention of men away from all written 
laws and creeds, and to fix it on that law which has been ob- 



S. 



11 

soured, perverted, and almost buried under an insupportable 
load of statutes, ceremonies and prescriptions. 

it was for the introduction and establishment of this testa- 
ment, that Christ endured such contradiction of sinners, and 
not (as the church has so long erroneously held) to introduce 
and establish certain books, which were written, some ten, 
some twenty, and some sixty years after his death. For if 
the four histories of Christ, the acts of the apostles, the epis- 
tles, and the apocalypse, constitute the real new testament, in 
what sense can it be called betUr than the old one ? Or how 
does it throw down the middle wall of partition between the 
Jew and Gentile ? How does it do away the difference be- 
tween the learned and the unlearned, the bond and the free, 
the rich and the poor 1 If the JNew Testament be in writing, 
the bond, the unlearned, and the gentile, find in it the same 
insuperable wall of distinction, as they did in the old one. 
They find the same necessity for education, for translators, 
interpreters and priests, as in the days of Moses and Aaron. 
The unlearned must still remain a slave, a dupe, and a listen- 
er to the learned. The poverty of the poor still constitutes 
an insuperable barri-er to his acquiring education enough to 
read the Bible. He must still hang upon the tongue, the caprice 
and the hypocrisy of a particular order of men, educated, dis- 
ciplined, and shaped in every respect to a particular creed. 

But according to the definition of Paul and Jeremiah, the 
basis of the new testament is so broad, that no combination of 
circumstance*, however fraught with poverty, wretchedness 
or distress, can place a single individual of our species, be-. 
yond its saving influence. 

Of this testament Chiist was to be the Mediator. But if 
those writings before mentioned are the new testament, there 
must have been no less than eight mediators ; for they were 
written by no less than eight different persons, two of whom 
never had the least personal acquaintance with Christ. Those 
writings are, at best, but a very brief history of some of the 
most important events, which transpired during the introduc- 
tion, of the new testament. And the moment they were col- 
lected, and proposed as a rule of faith and manners, the new 
testament, as defined by the prophet, and as confirmed and 
introduced by Christ, began to lose its influence, and to be 
buried again under a load of written laws, rules, and articles 
of faith. And the whole ahurch gradually fell into the adop- 
tion of that strange and unnatural medley of Judaism and 
Christianity, which has ever since been a stumbling block t<5 
mankind. 



12 

Prom the nature of the new testament, and from the ideas 
Which the prophet had of it, it is very probable, that many 
attempts were made to establish it, before the time of John 
and Christ; and that the innocent blood, the shedding of 
which was to be laid to the charge of the Jews, was a testi- 
mony of the holy endeavours, made to abolish the burdensome 
and oppressive system of Moses. But it is no marvel, that 
the old testament stood unshaken for such a length of time, 
when we consider the amazing weight of authority, which its 
priests must have gained, over the minds of the people, and 
the still greater difficulty of disengaging their minds from 
those trifling ordinances, when once inured to them, by the 
force of habit, and the almost indelible marks of early edu- 
cation. 

But although the abolition of such a system (more 
oppressive than popery) required the greatest prudence, the 
profoundest wisdom, and the most unabating magnanimity, 
the prophet Jeremiah saw that mankind could never be per- 
fect, and that universal benevolence could never be exercised 
so long as they continued to be governed by written laws. 
The old testament he saw was but a very imperfect transcript 
of the pure and imperishable law of nature,* For although 
Moses, its mediator, inculcated the great law of love, yet 
many of his laws were in direct opposition to it And there- 
fore, when Christ said, he came not to destroy the law-, but to 
fulfil it, he must have reierred to the great law of love. For 
he extracted several laws from the covenant of Moses, and 
condemned them, as not being true or not perfect from the 
beginning, though the Deity (to leave entire the agency and 
accountability of man) had hitherto permitted them to exist. 
The whole conduct of Christ, together with the manner in 
which he treated many of the laws of Moses, clearly evince, 
that he meant not to do away those law r s only, which stand 
condemned in the histories of the evangelists ; but that he was 
equally averse to the whole covenant ; as it not only obscured 
the law upon the heart, but made religion a mere theological 
grocery, in which the number, the hypocrisy and the extor- 
tion of its retailers, became a heavier burden, than mankind 
were able to bear. 

It may not be improper to enumerate some of those laws, 
which made a very considerable part of the old testament, but 
which Christ condemned as inconsistent with the welfare of 
man. In the fifth chapter of Matthew he says : " Again ye 
have heard that it hath been said, by them of old time, thou 

* By the Law of Nature, I mean the law of pure, uncontaminated nature, or 
the law of God. 



13 

shalt not forswear thyself, but shait perform unlo the Lord 
thine oaths. But I sa) unto you, swear not at all, neither by 
heaven, for it is God's throne, &c." Here then was a bold 
attack, upon one of the most important laws contained in the 
civil policy of the Jews. For such was the authority of an 
oath, among the people of that nation, that no written instru- 
ment could be of force without its sanction. 

Another law, which Christ condemned, was the enforce- 
ment of the law of revenge, which was a prominent feature in 
the character of all the writers of the first part of the Bible. 
" Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, 
and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you, resist not evil, 
but whomever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to 
him the other also." Again he says : 4< Ye have heard that 
it hath been said by them of old time, love thy neighbour and 
hate thine enemy.* But I say unto you, love your enemies, 
bless them who curse you, do good to them who hate you, 
and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute 
you." 

This opposition of Christ to these several laws of Moses, 
serves to show in a very plain and satisfactory manner, that 
however divine the origin of this covenant, and however well 
adapted to the age in which it was promulgated, it was too 
confining and oppressive for an age of greater light. 

As ) further illustration of Christ's persuasion of the im- 
perfection of the rules of the old testament, we may remark 
his uniform and unconquerable aversion to an established or- 
der of priests. To confine the office of instruction to a par- 
ticular order of men, to particular places and occasions, was 
in his view a great imposition, and piece of slavery. In con- 
tempt of it, he commenced a method of preaching, every way 
suited ro the i nprovement, the character, and the condition of 
his age He took upon him, none of their vows, ordinances, 
or ceremonies ; but still claimed the full authority of a 
pjpricher sent from God. 

No wonder that this noble personage had not where to lay 
his head in safety, while he so- boldly asserted the original 
prerogatives, and the primeval liberty of man. The doc- 
trine that the Deity was the only true, infallible and compe- 
tent legislator for his rational children ; that the human heart 
was the only adequate and imperishable table, on which he 
could inscribe his laws ; that an impartial attention to these 
inward laws, would enable every one, so to learn his duty as 
not to be dependant upon the capricious instruction of his 
neighbour ; that national policy, and every modification of it, 

* These laws that were condemned by Christ, may be found in the book of 
Leviticus, with a •* thus saith the Lord." 



14 

was only a perverted, partial transcript, an imperfect shadow 
or type of the pure law of nature; and that written creeds 
and ceremonies, and ordinances, only tended to abridge and 
impair the pure law on the mind — struck too fatal a blow at 
the interest, the ambition, and the pride of the Jewish clergy, 
not to induce a return of their revenge. Agreeably to the 
spirit and genius of this doctrine, we behold him in every 
place, and on every occasion, regulating his conduct. 

As another instance in which he showed the unequal na- 
ture of the laws of Moses. J will relate the following, from the 
second chapter of Mark. " And it came to pass, that he went 
through the cornfields on the Sabbath day ; and his disciples, 
as they went, began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 
And the Pharisees said unto him, why do thy disciples on the 
Sabbath day, that which is not lawful ?" In reply to his hyp- 
ocritical accusers, he showed them that man was not made 
for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath, like all other days, for the 
conveniency of man. This conduct of Christ and his disci- 
ples is a fair and indubitable example, wherein a written law 
of Moses abridged the law of natuie, whose authority, when 
felt, must never be sacrificed to the limitations and imagina- 
tions of men. So incapable of definition is the pure law of 
nature, or the will of God, by the human understanding, that 
men must ever despair of furnishing the world with a written 
code of laws, which shall not impair the true liberty and strict 
equality of the human race. 

As the last instance in which Christ disapproved of the 
covenant laws of Moses, I shall repeat a few verses from the 
8th chapter of John. " And the Scribes and Pharisees brought 
unto him a woman, taken in adultery, in the very act. And 
when they had set her in the midst, they said unto him, Mas- 
ter, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now 
Moses, in the law, commanded, that such should be stoned : 
but what sayest thou ? This they said tempting him, that they 
might have wherewith to accuse him. But Jesus stooped 
down and with his finger wrote upon the ground, as though 
he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he 
lifted up himself, and said, he that is without sin among you, 
let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down 
and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it being 
convicted by their own Consciences, went out one by one, 
beginning at the eldest, even unto the last ; and Jesus was 
left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Je- 
sus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he 
said unto her, woman, where are those thine accusers ? hath 
no man condemned thee ? She said, no man, Lord. And Je- 



15 

sus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee : go, and sin no 
more." 

So far was Christ, in this instance, from complying with 
the rigid law of Moses, that he was the first to excuse a trans- 
gression of it. And notwithstanding the amazing authority, 
which the laws of Moses had among the Scribes and Phari- 
sees, the inward law here arose in such power, that they were 
unable to suppress its convictions; or, according to the 
words of scripture, '* they were convicted by their own con- 
sciences." Christ saw, and perhaps explained to them, the 
unreasonableness and great inequality of this law. as also the 
gross inhumanity of bruising this woman to death for commit- 
ting a deed, which many or all of them might have been 
guilty of, though they might not have had the misfortune to 
be detected. They must likewise have seen that bare detec- 
tion, would be the sole occasion of her unhappy fate. 

How much more of the old testament Christ condemned as 
it was proposed to him by the Scribes and Pharisees, we are 
unable to say. But if, as he says, his blood was the blood 
of the new testament, and he had the same idea ot the new- 
testament as is expressed by the prophet Jeremiah, he ac- 
complished, what Paul says of him, viz. he took away the 
first testament, that he might establish the second or the 
new one. 

From these quotations, which I have made from the four 
histories of Christ, it must, I think, be evident to the mind of 
every candid reader, that he thought the whole system of 
Moses had now become an evil to the human species. And as 
he never offered any system of government to the world, nor 
gave the least intimation, as we know of, that a perfect, or 
even a profitable one could be prescribed in writing, we must 
conclude that Christ thought men had much better follow that 
system of legislation, which eternal wisdom and goodness has 
imprinted on the heart. 

He did tfot, as some perhaps would contend, endeavour to 
bring this new covenant into operation, barely because it was 
predicted by some one before him, but because it is a mat- 
ter of eternal right, and its nature and tendency is to produce 
the greatest sum of happiness. It is a dispensation, which 
needs not be enforced upon mankind by dint of authority. It 
discovers at once the greatest reason, propriety and utility, 
by placing every individual in a condition of knowing his 
duty in a much more perfect manner, than he could be placed 
in by all the invention, the learning, and wealth, of Christen- 
dom. To be satisfied of this, we need only look into the 
books of human legislation, and taere behold how wofully the 



16 

pure law of nature has been mangled, abridged and obscured 
by the busy invention of ambitious men. 

The new covenant of which the prophet spoke is as inca- 
pable of definition, as the beauties of nature are of just and 
accurate description. And the real difference between the 
new covenant and the old, is no less than that between real- 
ity and mere description, which only touches here and there 
a beauty without giving a view of the whole scene. The 
rewards and punishments annexed to the new covenant, or 
pure law of nature, are as well fitted to encourage mankind 
in virtue and to restrain them from vice, as the beauties and 
deformities of nature are to inspire them with emotions of 
pleasure or disgust. 

And since national policy and every modification of it, is 
only a partial transcript of the pure law or light of nature, 
would it not be much the safest way for mankind to follow 
the pure original ? By doing which they would be able to 
exemplify, by actual experiment, what they now endeavour 
to produce by force, fine, imprisonment and death. That 
savage violence, which is made the present defence of na- 
tions and the wretched guardian of private property and civil 
privileges, is but the miserable offspring of avarice, ambition 
and pride. It is an enemy to every virtuous principle of the 
human heart. Its tendency is to degrade mankind and to 
keep them from the attainment of that perfection which 
heaven has designed for the completion of their happiness. 
What are the systems of national policy n@w in existence, 
"but a kind of half-way mimickry of that inward and imperish- 
able law, which binds men together, and instinctively impels 
them to discharge offices of humanity and love to each other.*" 

.But to return : VVe have seen, by what has been said, the true 
estimate which Jesus Christ put upon the systems, which were 
current in his day ; and the firm persuasion which he had in 
the propriety, the utility, and the importance of the universal 
introduction of the new covenant, as defined by Jeremiah and 
Paul. As a further specimen of the incalculable benefits, 
which Paul conceived the establishment of the new testament 
to have, we may review his own words. In the eighth chap- 
ter of Hebrews, he says, " For if that first covenant had been 

faultless, then no place should have been sought for the sec- 
one?." And then quoting what Jeremiah says of the new 
covenant, begins to reason with the Hebrews upon it, as 

* Although such, in my view, is the character of most, or all of the present 
codes of law; .yet the present condition of mankind will not admit of their 
being hastily dispensed with. Positive icnocen'ce and purity 01 soul can alone 
supply their place. 



17 

tho* he understood, that its operations commenced with the 
ministry of Christ ; and that while they, the Hebrews, held 
to the veil of the old testament, and regulated their conduct 
by that, they could not expect the new one to have any salu- 
tary effect. He considered the old testament a thick veil, 
which prevented the Jews from taking a just and accurate 
view of the new one. 

But enough has been brought from the Bible to show, that 
Jeremiah, Christ and Paul, considered the old testament, but 
a very imperfect type of the new one, for the introduction and 
establishment of which there was shed such a sea of innocent 
blood j and that they all considered the new testament, to be 
a dispensation, in which men were to turn their whole atten* 
tion to the convictions and approbations of the inward law. 

We see none ot Christ's disciples holding up the history 
of Matthew or Mark, as a part of the new testament, com- 
manding people every where to believe in that, as the true 
word of God ; none of them spreading abroad and translat- 
ing the epistles of Paul and Peter with a zeal indicating that 
mankind were going to perish without them, none saying, ye 
must believe in the acts of the apostles, that your sins may be 
forgiven you. But all this should have been said, if we are 
to take their writings for the new testament. Those who say 
that the old testament is a type of those writings, which at 
present pass under the name of the new testament, use a 
phraseology no less absurd, than the person who should say 
that one man was the type of another, or that the book of 
Genesis was a figure of the book of Matthew, or that the de- 
scription of Solomon's temple was the temple itself. 

But notwithstanding this veil of deception has been fasten- 
ed upon the mind of the church visible, for such a length of 
time, it must be evident, that the conduct and doctrines of 
Christ and his apostles, were a complete verification of that 
period, which the prophet Jeremiah disclosed as the consum- 
mation of earthly happiness. If the other disciples were of 
like mind with Paul, the question seems to be placed beyond 
a doubt, that they all believed the prophecy of Jeremiah to 
be then fulfilling under the power which attended their min- 
istry. And besides, if the old testament began to wax so 
old in the days of Paul, as to be ready to vanish, by the in- 
troduction of the new one, those who revived the authority 
of the former after the days of the first apostles, must have 
fallen into a gross error. For as long as the old testament 
continued in existence, it undoubtedly would prevent the 
benign influence and saving effects of the new one. 

For my own part I am able to gee but very little difference 



18 

between the Christian who takes the bible for the rule of hi^ 
life, and the Jew, though the latter appears the more consis- 
tent, inasmuch as he acknowledges the full authority of every 
part of the old testament, while the Christian neither ac- 
knowledges the full authority of the old, nor the reality of the 
new, as it was understood by the prophet, by Jesus Christ 
and his immediate disciples. The method of educating, set- 
tling and paying priests, is nearly the same, as under the dis- 
pensation of Moses and Aaron. Those writings denominated 
the new testament, are so far from supplanting the old testa- 
ment writings, that they are only made an addition to them ; 
in the same manner as the books of Job, Daniel and Jonah 
are added. So that, according to the popular idea of the 
new testament, it is just the reverse of what the prophet Jere- 
miah defined it to be. For according to the popular idea of 
ft, God has made it, in almost every respect according to the 
covenant, which he made with the Israelites, when he led 
them out of the land of Egypt. Instead of writing his law in 
the heart, as he promised to do. he has again written it on 
paper in the form of biographies and epistles ; and instead of 
that equality of condition, wherein no one should teach his 
neighbour, we find the world burthened with a set of men r 
whose whole employment it is to instruct others in their duty 
to God and their fellow men. 

Now, I have no hesitancy in saying, that the popular idea 
of the new testament is completely the opposite of what the 
scriptures testify respecting it. Instead of following the great 
principle of truth, or that convicting and approving power, 
which is manifest in the heart of every human being, most 
Christian denominations are idolizing a book, the authority 
of which was once done away, but has been revived by the 
intrigue of blind, enthusiastic councils. 

When people measure the prosperity of religion by an un- 
common multiplication of priests, by a growing fondness for 
embodying wealth, grandeur and magnificence in buildings for 
stated worship, or by a violent attachment to a particular book, 
or any other work of men's hands, they manifest a rapid re- 
turn toward that melancholy goal of Judasism at which the 
©rder of Aaron had arrived, when Christ announced the com- 
mencement of ihe new testament : and told the Jews to throw 
off their shadows, and to embrace the substance. But as the 
Jews clung to their temple and its ceremonies, the building 
and establishment of which were dictated by inspiration, so do 
men cling to the scriptures, the building or composing of 
which was' in part also the effect of inspiration. When that 
monument of inspiration became an idol, it was destroyed, and 



1S> 

its votaries dispersed. In like manner may God annihilate 
that impious attachment, which men hold, or pretend to hold 
for the scriptures. Are not those, who hold themselves in ex- 
pectation of a period, when every one shall be able to know 
his duty without the assistance of his fellow, evidently stand- 
ing in their own light, while they are unwilling to let go the 
veil of the old testament, which keeps them from the realiza- 
tion of that happy period ? 

Those who are wishing and praying for the universal spread 
•f the gospel, but still keep on spreading books, which have 
once been fulfilled, or which were written for the instruction, 
and edification of a former age, without the least reference to 
the present, appear to be very much in the condition of ad- 
venturers, who after reaching the shore should expect to get 
on land without leaving the old leaky vessel in which they 
had been induced to embark and to endure every species of 
hardships by the imaginary rewards of blind, unskilful com- 
manders. Notwithstanding all its inconveniences, they have 
become so inured to the old bark, they think themselves un- 
able to dispense with it even upon a land of perfect safety. 

Perhaps some may be in doubt about the manner of writing 
this law upon the heart, or rather what is meant by writing it. 
It is the opinion of many, that it is to be accomplished by 
giving all mankind a thorough acquaintance with the scriptures. 
But God says / will write this law upon their heart. He dont 
say the priests shall write it (in their head.) This their opin- 
ion is completely the reverse of what Paul has expressed 
upon the subject, and what would appear the most expeditious 
and the safest way from the nature of the subject. When the 
Prophet Jeremiah spoke of a law, that should be written in 
men's minds, he could not have meant that this law was not 
already in the mind ; but by the writing of it, he must have 
meant such a recognition of it, such an attention and obedience 
to it, as would enable them clearly to see its divine origin, 
the perfect safety of trusting to its authority, and the inesti- 
mable rewards of keeping it. But while men are guided by the 
obscure meaning, or fanciful interpretations of the written laws 
of Moses, and of the local and temporary writings of the first 
apostles, their attention must be drawn away from that inward 
law, and consequently its effect upon their conduct must be 
exceedingly partial. 

The removal of those written laws and those burdensome 
ordinances, which men have so long idolized, will give 
their minds the same advantage in perceiving the reality and 
vhe efficiency of Nature's laws as the rending of the veil which 



20 

concealed " the holy of holies," gave the eye of the Israel- 
ite in examining its consecrated furniture. The attention 
being turned from the mere transcript of Nature's laws, the 
mind will thereby be prepared to catch their dictates living 
as they rise. 

Attention, says the great Robert Boyle, is to the mind, what 
a magnifying glass is to the eye- If this idea be true, how 
wonderfully intelligible will be the inward law, when men 
shall pay so much attention to it as to detect every mote, 
which may obscure its glorious light. In the scriptures we 
see much of the pure law of Nature put into propositions and 
conclusions, and these propositions and conclusions are re- 
ceived, or rejected according as they are found to agree or 
disagree with what men have seen and experienced of the in- 
ward law of God. So that Nature's inward law becomes a 
judge and a standard by which men unavoidably pronounce 
every verbal and written proposition true, or false. This is 
so obvious a matter of fact, that there can be no question 
about it. 

If the contents of the scripture are above reason and com- 
mon experience, how comes it to pass that all the religious 
denominations, without exception, are continually reasoning 
about them, as though they saw every step of reasoning upon 
which, the different conclusions are founded ? Do not men 
assent to and embrace the propositions of Paul, from the same 
evidence, that he received them upon ? And does not this 
evidence belong in nature to these propositions — as much as 
the evidence of any proposition, in Euclid, belongs to that 
proposition ? Did Euclid have any more evidence of, or any 
stronger faith in the truth of his propositions, than men now 
have. But men employ the same faculties of mind in demon- 
strating the various propositions of Paul, that they do in de- 
monstrating the propositions of Euclid. 

What do men mean by what they call the study of theology, 
or the ransacking of ancient history, if it be not to reflect as 
they think, meaning, or light upon the words of the scriptures ! 
"Why do men spend so much time in deciphering from the re- 
<cords of history, the particular circumstances, occasions, and 
even reasons of every speech and sentence in the bible, if in 
the nature of things, these circumstances, occasions and rea- 
sons had no necessary agency in the production of such 
speeches and sentences ? 

Why do our theologians descant so much upon the beauties 
and the proprieties of the various parts of the bible, while 
•hey deny that they know any thi»g about the nature of that; 



21 

which they call miraculous inspiration, and which they say 
was known only to the scripture writers ? The terms beauty, 
propriety, simplicity and benevolence are relative, and have 
no meaning when applied to things, actions, and events 
which are out of the known course of nature. The fact is, 
that the conduct of our theologians, is in every respect, a 
downright contradiction to their theories. 

That the new covenant, as defined by Jeremiah, was ush- 
ered in by Jesus Christ, and in a great measure matured by the 
preaching and benevolent exertions of the apostles, may be 
placed beyond the shadow of a doubt, by merely perusing 
the face of scripture ; to say nothing of the flood of aigument, 
that pours in upon the mind from a thousand other sources.— 
In Paul's epistles, there is a very frequent as well as a very 
important mention made of the new covenant. In the third 
chapter of the second of Cor. the subject is thus explicitly in- 
troduced — " Not that we are able to think any thing as of our- 
selves : but our sufficiency is of God, who hath made us able 
ministers of the new-covenant, (kame, Diatheeke) not of the 
letter — or better translated, not of writing ; but of the spirit; 
for the letter, or writing killeth, but the spirit giveth life.— *— 
Now it may be asked of what new-covenant were Paul and 
many others made able ministers. Was it a promiscuous 
collection of epistles and biographies ? No. The man 
must be most blindly mad, who pretends to such a bare- 
faced contradiction. The language is indisputable, " not of 
writing, but of the spirit" — that same spirit which Jeremiah 
says, shall write the new covenant upon the heart. The re- 
mainder of the abovementioned chapter is a still stronger 
proof of what 1 have said respecting the nature and primitive 
character of the new covenant. In the 12th verse, Paul pro- 
ceeds thus : " Seeing then that we have such hope, we use 
great plainness of speech, and not like Moses diffident and 
doubtful, who put a veil over his face, that the children of 
Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that, which is 
abolished. But their minds were blinded : for until this day 
remaineth the same veil untaken away, in the reading of 
the old covenant, which is done away in Christ. In the close 
of this verse, the word veil is added by the translators, 
(which veil is done away in Christ) so that the pronoun 
(which) is made to refer to the word veil, an unwarrant- 
able stretch of rhetoricalliberty ! But let the translation 
tion of this phrase be either way, the word veil as used in 
this verse evidently means, either the prejudice, which blind- 
ed the minds of the Jews, and kept them from seeing the 
beauty and efficacy of the new testament ; or else the old testa- 



22 

Baent itself. In the following verse the word veil is again used 
metaphorically. " But even unto this day, when Moses, i. e. 
the old covenant" is read, the veil is upon their hearts. That 
veil, which Moses wore through modesty and diffidence, is 
here taken to represent the benighted, and doubtful nature of 
the old covenant. Who could imagine from the character of 
this epistle, that Paul supposed himself composing a part of a 
book which should be called the new testament : when he 
himself says, that he was a minister of a testament not of wri- 
ting, but of the spirit. The man who can hold to such an 
opinion, ought not to think himself an inhabitant of this age, 
but as cotemporary and joint-believer with his brother Jew. 
But I have not mentioned an hundredth part of the passages 
of scripture, which express the old testament under an idea 
similar to that of a veil. 

That the introduction of the new covenant, as defined by 
Jeremiah, would be attended with the happiest and most sal- 
utary effects, may be presumed from the consideration, that 
it has been several times partially established by the unre- 
mitting exertions of different persons, and has always been 
productive of great piety and morality. So far as it was in- 
troduced and defended by Jesus Christ and his disciples, it 
was productive of every virtue, which could dignify and fe- 
licitate society. Industry and frugality, peace and plenty, 
were the immediate result of that noble system of legislation; 
which makes every individual of our species equally a sub- 
ject and servant of the great parent of the universe. The 
passions and feelings of those who became subjects to this 
noble government, seemed to tend to a common centre of har- 
mony. The idea of nation, •society and even family w r as 
done aw r ay ; and all became the household of God. Patriot- 
ism was swallowed up in philanthropy, and benevolence was 
the only string that seemed to vibrate in the human heart. 

How far this eternal system of right was introduced by So- 
crates and his disciples, we are not warranted to say ; though 
from the slight account we have of him. we may presume that 
it had gained such a permanence in Greece at the death of 
this virtuous reformer, thnt many years passed away before 
it was completely buried under the ponderous load of bigotry 
and superstition which then enslaved that haughty nation. — 
It was not till after the death of this noble personage, that 
his countrymen began to perceive the transcendent beauty, 
propriety and importance of his doctrines. Whilehe lived 
they thought him an injurious innovator; but when cool re- 
flection came to employ their minds, and the dreadful visage 
of novelty became more familiar, they began to realize the 



23 

worth of his instruction, by the growing vices and impiety of 
their youth. They saw, that although he laid the ax ai the 
root of their craft, their vain philosophy, and their idolatry, 
he was really a benefactor to mankind. The proof that he 
had an idea of the new covenant, arises from the similarity of 
his conduct to that of Christ. He opposed the ceremonies 
and creeds of Greece, as the futile and visionary inventions 
of hireling men. He taught, on all occasions, and to all de- 
scriptions of men, when his good Demon gave him utterance. 
And as he never wrote any system of religion, or proposed 
any to the world, we may justly infer, that he wished to leave 
every man to the guidance of his own good Demon, or power 
of God upon his heart. 

But the best and most indubitable example of the happy ef- 
fects of the new covenant, is the rise, progress and permanent 
establishment of the Society of Friends. And although this 
Society does not appear to be fully under the authority of this 
new government, yet in their conduct and principles, they 
have approached so near to it, that the peace, the harmony anil 
the many virtues of the Society may well be laid to their par- 
tial avowal of it. In the abolition of written laws and creeds, 
they have gone far beyond any other Society in existence. — 
They all pretend to be governed by one great principle of 
truth, which is either acknowledged or implied in the conduct 
of all mankind. This principle is that power in the human 
mind, which is the convictor of sin and approver of good.— - 
The scripture defines it to be a power which "convicts the 
world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment." In the com- 
mencement of this society, so far as they embraced the new 
testament, they did it by the shedding of their blood. But their 
innocence, their patience and their perseverance wore out the 
malignity, the cruelty, and the artifice of their enemies, and 
finally enabled them to realize the precious fruits of their 
wonderful toil. 

As they became subjects of this new government, they were 
freed from the thraldom of priestcraft, with all its slavish ap- 
pendages. The spirit of war. was exchanged for the mild 
temper of peace and forbearance. And they are now able to 
furnish the world with a fair and indubitable experiment of a 
principle of government, which secures at once the peace, the 
safety and the happiness of all who acknowledge and obey it. 



THE CELESTIAL MAGNET 



NUMBER IV. 



BY DAVID B. SLACK,' 






The first part of this number contains an analysis of several scriptural terms, 
3dch as Comforter, Revelation, Inspiration, Holy Spirit, the Word, &c. and 
shows that they all are expressive of the same thing, which people mean by 
the conviction and approbation of Conscience. In the sequel it is shown, that 
Jesus of Nazareth was the son. of Joseph and Mary, and that had the truest 
history of him come down to us (the history of the Nazarenes) this would havfe 
been the only idea among us. 

The method of analysis, in all the sciences to which it has 
been applied, has invariably been attended with the most 
flattering success. From which favourable circumstance in 
this method of discovering truth, I am induced to apply it to 
the subject of religion. 

There are a number of scripture terms which the majority 
of people, consider too sacred even to attempt an investiga- 
tion of their meaning. To this sacred catalogue belong the 
terms inspiration^ revelation, comforter, holy ghost, holy spirit^ 
spirit of truth, the word, the gospel, fyc. Now it will be the 
object of this number, to analyze some of these terms, to strip 
them of that bold metaphor which is now made the source of 
so much whim and caprice ; and to evince, if possible, from 
the very origin of these terms, that they were intended to sig- 
nify the various operations of one simple power, one magnet 
of divine truth, which is equally as efficacious and operative 
at the present day as it ever was, and. whose influences are 
unavoidably recognized by every rational being. 

The English word, inspiration, is derived immediately from 
the Latin word, inspiratio, which is compounded of the two 
words, in and spiro, which make up the verb inspiro, to 
breathe into any thing. This term was frequently used by 
the Roman prophets, or poets and seers to express a state of 
mind, which prepared its subjects to disclose events not ordi« 
narily known. In the scriptures it has a more extensive 
signification. '- For when Paul says that " all scripture, or 
writing is given by inspiration of God ? he must have included 



-efvery state of the mind, which prepared the reputed authors 
of the scriptures, to write them. The Greek word which 
Paul here uses to signify the idea conveyed by the phrase 
inspiration of God, is Theopneustos, a term compounded of 
Theos, God, and pneo, to breathe. The literal signification of 
Theopneustos, and consequently of the phrase inspiration of 
God, is the breathing of God. But as no one will be so gross 
and corporeal in his ideas of God as to suppose that he is a 
being whose existence depends upon the function of breathing, 
the question is, what idea did the scripture writers mean to 
express by the word Theopneustos ? For unless we can find 
in universal experience some mental operation, of which this 
term is an appropriate symbol or expression, the precise 
definition of it, must forever be unsettled. When an object 
of sense is made the symbol of a mental operation, it is in 
many cases very difficult to apprehend the exact point in 
which the writer conceived that object to resemble the idea 
he wished to express. For two objects very frequently re- 
semble each other in more points than one, this being the 
case, when one is made the expression of the other, the idea 
intended to be conveyed is generally confused and ambigu- 
ous. But in the present instance there appears to be but one 
single point in which the scripture writers conceived the op- 
eration of breathing into any thing, to resemble that mode of 
communication which the Deity employs to express his will 
to men-*, and that point is the stillness and composure of the 
two operations. 

There is nothing articulate, nor indeed is there much sound 
in the act of breathing; and there being nothing articulate in 
God's communications, the act of breathing into any thing 
was seized by the scripture writers to express that divine 
communication which is, in a measure, vouchsafed to all men. 
But although on a close analysis the resemblance appears to 
be faint, yet were the term inspiration used to express some 
known operation on the mind, it would be very significant. 
The word, apprehend, is originally as bold a metaphor as the 
word inspiration, though the former by a constant application 
to a known, universal act of the mind, is perfectly understood 
by all who have occasion to use it. But the word inspiration as 
used by those who style themselves Divines, expresses an op- 
eration on the mind, which has not been experienced for the 
space of seventeen hundred years. So that, with these men 3 
the true notion of inspiration being lost, as much as the no- 
tion of the Egyptian art of embalming is, they make the term 



mean any thing and every thing as it will conduce most to 
their advantage, and best comport vrkh their caprice, 

Shojld the term inspiration be made the expression of those 
persuasions of duty and convictions of sin, which now so 
evidently exercise men's minds, and which they have no 
power to prevent, it would become a faithful servant, and 
discharge the same office, which it did in the days of Paul 
and Peter, That men do at present actually experience what, 
in the days of the apostles, was called Theopnmstos, may be 
undeniably .evinced .from the predicted office of that divine 
operation. The office of Theopneuslos (inspiration of God) 
was to convince <he world of sin, of righteousness and of 
judgment. But cire not people now convinced of the torment 
of sin, the beauty and propriety of righteousness and of the 
satisfaction of doing justice ? And is this a different and less 
divine conviction of these things that the scripture writers had 1 
If so the fault is not in man who has no power to convict him- 
self, but in the Deity. But since all men without exception, 
speak of their convictions of sin, their persuasions of duty, 
and their compunctions of conscience, we must accept the 
truth of their testimonies. And while we accept the truth of 
their testimonies we are unavoidably led to inquire whether 
these convictions and compunctions of which they all invol- 
untarily speak, and which they attribute to a something call- 
ed conscience, is not essentially and entirely the same as thos# 
which are mentioned in scripture as proceeding from imme- 
diate inspiration. On a thorough analysis of the scripture 
phraseology, it evidently appears, that what we call the con- 
sciencious, scrupulous man, would have been called in the 
days of Jesus, the inspired man, the man full of the holy 
ghost, or the man of God. For as well might we contend, 
that the whole course of the material world is changed ; that 
the sun shines with a less splendid radiance than it did in 
the days of Jesus ; that the revolution of the planets and the 
succession of the seasons, are reversed ; that the wintry frosts 
of January were formerly more congenial to the growth of the 
vegetable and the animal kingdoms than the softening dews of 
May are at this day, as that the mode of divine communica- 
tion to man ha 1 ? been changed. 

Had Deity commanded the disciples of Jesus to bottle up 
all the showers that fell eighteen hundred years ago for the 
purpose of supplying future generations, he would not appear 
one whit less ignoble, cruel and inconsistent, than he is now 
made to appear by those men who contend that those fragment 
writings, falsely styled the new testament, are designed to be $ 



perfect rule of faith and manners to all men. When the scrip* 
ture writers speak of any material event such as the rising of 
the sun, the falling of rain, or the inclemency of the weather, we 
readily understand them. The reason of which, is, that we 
see the same events ourselves, and believe them to have been 
seen in the same manner by all former ages. And shall we 
accept one half of scripture phraseology in a sense which cor- 
responds to, and expresses the substance of our own experi- 
ence and affix phantoms, guesses and chimeras, to the other 
half? 

Common sense will tell any man that he must analyze the 
language of scripture till he is able to construe it according 
to the good experience of mankind, the only rule by which 
translators of all ages and nations have been guided in their 
labours. When therefore we meet with words and phrase's 
which relate to the mind, our first inquiry should be, whether 
these words and phrases are not expressive of the same kind 
of mental operations which we have been conscious of, our- 
selves, but which perhaps we have not regarded as we might 
have done, or have considered them as proceeding from a 
source other than divine, and thereby failed of those unspeak- 
able rewards and those deeper and more sublime discoveries, 
which some before us, have attained to. 

We have the same reason for supposing that the Greek word 
phos did not, in the days of Homer, signify that same body of 
light, which now illumines our hemisphere, as we have for 
supposing that the Greek word theopneustos (inspiration) did 
not in the days of the scripture writers, signify that same 
kind of operations and impressions which now float almost 
unheeded through the minds of all men. The inspiration of 
the scripture writers, it is said, was special and effectual. 
But any one who reads scripture may see that the speciality 
and effectuality of inspiration was made so by the attention 
which its subjects payed to its faint beginnings. So that the 
only impediment to our having special inspiration is the want 
of that uniform attention and regard which made it special to 
Jesus and his immediate disciples. From this view of the 
subject, it is evident that the same power, which convicted Ju- 
das of his treachery ; Paul, that it was his duty to go to Rome ; 
and Peter, that he ought to go to the house of Cornelius, now 
convinces men of injustice, fraud, ingratitude and falsehood, 
and approves them for justice, mercy, love and harmony, and 
Is no other than the pure spirit or power of God. And the 
Word inspiration has as much meaning now as it ever had, 
During the long period from Adam to John 3 the reputed rev^ 



b 

later, seme individuals are almost continually giving accounts 
of their converse with the Deity, and making it a very com- 
mon and natural thing ; and should people give up the literal 
meaning of that amazingly figurative phraseology in which, 
the views of the scripture writers are couched, they would 
find that many conscientious people now have the same com- 
munications with the Deity, though expressed in a very differ- 
ent language. 

The true mode of divine communication is to most people a 
dead, insignificant, and unintelligible language ; and is con- 
sidered too variable and capricious to be trusted. So that those 
who would return to a true state of liberty and equality, must 
-first learn the silent, inarticulate, tho' significant and persuasive 
language of the Deity. Then they will perceive the wonder- 
ful significancy of that mystical phraseology which has so long 
Ibeen the refuge of mercenaries, and a stumbling block to their 
supple followers. As the learner of a dead language, by his 
attention and study, is constantly gaining new facilities in 
understanding the authors he perukes, so he who becomes an 
honest, impartial, vigilant centinel over the operations on his 
o\\r : mind, gradually becomes acquainted with that language 
which has been nearly lost amid the confusion of contending 
hirelings. The great veil between men and the Deity, is 
their inattention to his mode of communicating his will and 
designs to them. And did they toil as hard and pay as much 
attention to this, as they do to the enchanting notes of priests, 
they would not appear so pedantic and ridiculous in matters 
of real religion. 

By an attention to the course of nature and its various phe- 
nomena, men have for ages been arriving at the most solid 
and indubitable conclusions. They have felt no want, neither 
in respect to their«competency to investigate truth, or in re- 
spect to the subjects of their investigations. .They seem in- 
voluntarily to go forth feeling armed and equipped for the 
enterprise. But the moment the subject of religion is men- 
tioned as depending upon experience for any valuable dis- 
coveries in it, every head is turned — every mind is shocked.; 
pne points to Jesus for a proof of his religion, another lo 
Moses, and another to Paul. With many, it seems to be a 
thing almost too sacred to be experienced, fit only to be dis- 
coursed upon by those who pass the ordeal of some divinity 
school. But those who have made any considerable attain- 
ments in religion, have made them as Jesus himself did, by 
observing and watching the providence of Deity in their own 
minds. As the natural philosopher obtains his knowledge o£ 



6 

truth by observing the providence of Deity in the material 
world, so the true christian obtains his by observing and 
obeying the providence of Deity in the intellectual world. — 
And as it is one province erf the former to secure the health 
and salvation of the body, so it is the province of the latter to 
secure the health and the salvation of the soul. Experience 
makes the philosopher, experience makes the Christian. 

That the Deity, in his various converse with men. ever 
held it in any other way than by his providence which all men 
speak of as known to them, I have no idea. His providence 
in the intellectual and material world is sufficiently plain, in- 
telligible and impressive for the guidance of man. And should 
men apply the same phraseology to what they observe of the 
providence of Deity at this present time, as is used by the 
writers of the scriptures to express what they observed of the 
providence of God in their day, future generations would 
regard the writing of our age in the same light as we regard 
the scriptures. For they, taking our phraseology in a literal 
sense, would say that they had never seen any such a God 
who talked with them in an audible voice, who taught those 
who spoke in his name to say, "thus saith the Lord;" and 
therefore they would be disposed to have just such a God as 
the literal meaning of our writings, imported. This is the 
woful state of most people at the present day. 

After this digression 1 will return and attempt to analyse 
the word revelation. This term is derived immediately from 
the Latin word rcvelatio, which originally signified the act of 
unrolling or unfolding. The Greek word which corresponds 
to the Latin word revetatio is apocalupsis compounded of the 
words apo, and kalupto, to unfold. The Greeks and Latins 
did not invent the words apocalupsis and reve.latio to express 
the divine communications made to the Hebrews, but they 
had a significant meaning for them m the substance of their 
own experience, long before the scriptures were translated 
into their languages. Now if, as Thomas 'Reid says, " lan- 
guage is the picture of a people's character, passions and. 
feelings, the Greeks and Romans must have had feelings and 
mental operations agreeing to these two symbols, apocalupsis 
and revelatio. Now as the Greeks and Latins took these two 
words to express the converse of the Deity with the Hebrews, 
the conclusion is inevitable that unless they were in some 
measure acquainted with the same kind of converse, they 
would not have taken these words to express what passed in 
the minds of the Hebrews. A little attention to the original 
sense of the word revelation will suffice to convince any mar. 



that it meant precisely the same thing as inspiration ; and 
that it still has a significant and living meaning in the expe- 
rience of men. For revelation, in the true true sense of it, 
does not suppose in the subject of it, positive goodness ; it is 
merely counsel and instruction communicated without any 
reference to the use which is made of it. Between the unroll- 
ing of a parchment which the Greeks and Romans roiled up 
m the form of a cylinder, and that mysterious providence of 
Deity, which discloses to men a knowledge of their duty, they 
perceived a peculiar analogy — for as he who unrolled the 
parchment (if he understood its language) never failed of ob- 
taining the desired information, so he who is intent upon the 
"providence of Deity never fails of having his duty disclosed 
to him ; whether it be to cry against the wickedness of the 
people, to relieve the distressed, or to restore what has been 
fraudulently taken from another. 

But the climax of caprice and nonsense is manifested in 
the use which has been made of the word comforter. Never 
was there such a complication of systems, such an endless 
source and variety of conjectures, such an exhaustless spring 
of fraud and deception as have originated from this mystical 
word. To describe the different tenets which have been de- 
duced from the supposed meaning of this solitary, unfortunate 
term, by the busy invention of fanatics, would require the 
composition of volumes. Jt has been made an umbrage to 
every species of imposture - % and a covering to more iniquity 
than was ever committed by empires of harlots. Mahomet, 
by assuming the office which the literal meaning of this term 
imported, invented a volume whose whimsical contents are 
the idols of a mighty nation. Little did the authors who first 
used the term advocate, think that it would be thus abused ; 
a term used by the evangelist to express the simplest idea in 
human knowledge, a convicting and approving power which 
never leaves the mind ; and which daily and hourly discharges 
the office ascribed to it, viz. that of convincing the world of 
sin, of righteousness and of judgment. 

The original Greek word parakletos which by the translators 
of the scriptures was rendered comforter, is made, in general, 
to mean something very different from what its composition 
will warrant. The words from which parakletos is derived, 
are para and kaho, corresponding to the Latin word ad ami 
voco, to call to or to solicit. So that the proper and only 
warrantable signification of parakletos, is solicitor or advo- 
cate. As a proof of the correctness of this translation, we 
may recur to the predicted effects or ohVes of this promised 



a 

benefactor. It was to lead into all truth, to convince of sin 2 
to approve of righteousness and of judgment. Now would 
not a person wholly unacquainted with the Greek language, 
readily perceive that it is much more naturally and immedi- 
ately the office of a solicitor or advocate, than of a comforter 
to lead into truth, to convince of sin, #c. Advocate, being 
the truest and most significant translation of the word parak- 
letos our next inquiry is whether this term, like the two al- 
ready explained, does not express a matter of common ex- 
perience, and whether this matter of common experience is 
not a leading into truth. This expression is one of the high- 
est personifications in the whole scripture. It not only per* 
sonifies the subject of which it is the expression, but the con- 
duct ascribed to this advocate is a stili higher figure, in which 
the action of the object is transferred to the subject or agent. 
So that by " the advocate's coming" nomoieor less is meant, 
than the candidly opening of our hearts to receive the full 
impression of evidence. In .this impressible state of the soul, 
the evidence or light of truth becomes a powerful and persua- 
sive advocate. Conviction is felt with the most pointed force ; 
righteousness is perceived in its liveliest character, and judg- 
ment is so plain and obvious as almost to enforce its own 
practice. Truth stands knocking at the door of the heart, 
with its advocate, evidence pleading for its admission ; and 
comfort awaits those humble followers who yield to its earnest 
solicitations. 

From this analysis of the term advocate, every person of 
candour will perceive the gross errour of exclusively appro- 
priating this term to certain extraordinary operations of 
the mind, which are conjectured to have been experienced 
only by the immediate followers of Jesus. If conviciion is 
felt in the minds of any, it is the work of the advocate, or in the 
language of scripture " the advocate is come to lead them into 
all truth." 

But men have the same power to prevent the pleadings of 
this advocate, or to put its holy persuasions out of their minds, 
as the Jews had to put Jesus of Nazareth out of their syna- 
gogues ; and men too often think this daily and nightly visitor 
as unworthy their notice as the Jews did Jesus of their tem- 
ple. The cry of the Jews was, " is not this the carpenter, 
the son of Joseph and Mary, whose brothers and sisters we 
know, and are all here with us." Is not this that poor, hum- 
ble mechanic, who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow, 
and supplies the wants of his suffering neighbours by the. 
fruits of his own toil ? 



What can such a fellow know about divinity. Away with 
him from our temple which has been consecrated to the learn- 
ed and sanctified sons of Aaron. Away with him from our 
synagogue — he has never been invited to preach — he has 
never been ordained — he will break up our holy order of 
priests. Let him be regularly ordained, let him read the law 
and chant over the psalms of David, let him contend earnestly 
for the holy order of priests, let him conceal their hypocrisy, 
and our temples and synagogues shall be open to him. But, 
holy Jesus, thy neck never bent to all this mummery. So now 
the cry against regarding our common convictions of duty as 
a revelation from Deity, is much the same. They are too 
common things, say the professors of our day, they will lead 
us out of the favour, the fashions, and the complacency of our 
priests ; they will lead us to be industrious, patient, attentive 
and, perhaps, to act the mortifying part of Zacheus, in restor- 
ing what we have fraudulently taken from others. Surely this 
kind of conduct, would be too incompatible with that dignity 
of character, which we must maintain before a gainsaying 
world. The holy cause of our religion, requires that we 
should conceal our dishonesty — disown the just imputations 
of our knavery, and by all means clear up the disgrace of 
our falsehoods and thefts. 

So that we see the true advocate under the lowly name of 
conscience, treated precisely in the same manner as the Jews 
treated Jesus of Nazareth. But hear the plea of our modern 
professors, for this horrid reverse of christian faith and man- 
ners. " The times are changed," say they. " For us to act, 
in these enlightened days, like the immediate followers of Je- 
sus, would incur a most insupportable disgrace. If we should 
foliow our common convictions of conscience, much of our 
property, and all our grandeur and distinction which we have 
obtained (by overreaching and fraud) would be lost ; and all 
the common day labourers and mechanicks would be upon a 
level with us. To do as our conscience dictates, at this en- 
lightened age, would betray a weakness which the -world 
would despise. It would lead us into a state of mind, where 
all our dignity and (affected) delicacy would be forever unno- 
ticed. In this wretched state of things, whoever did the will 
of Deity, would be our mother, our sister, and our brother, 
however poor, mean, or disreputable. So altered are the 
times, that the religion of Jesus would no more comport with 
the fashions, customs and institutions of this our enlightened 
age, than our scientifick religion with the superstitious and 
unlettered condition of Hindostan. or Nigretia! For the 
2 



TO 

religion of Jesus made every day, a day of judgment, of ac* 
countability ; and a day of restoration of all things whicA 
might have been misplaced by the avaricious dispositions of 
men: which heart- piercing -doctrine, if taught at this day, 
would break up all tbe order and polish of society ; and 
(shocking to tell) it wouid make many of our worshipful and 
reverend clergy appear just as full of injustice, iniquity, fraud 
and licentiousness, as they, in very general terms,, confess to 
be. How much better is our religion suited to the improve- 
ment of our age, than the religion of Jesus. In our religion, 
the day of judgment, of accountability, and of restoration of 
all things, is most judiciously placed in another world : in 
such wise sort, that the specification of our crimes will be 
wholly darkened and unnoticed by reason of the multiplied 
confessions about us. So that we shall suffer no disgrace, 
and shall be sure to share the approbation, confidence, and 
esteem of the world, so long as we continue in it. And al- 
though our priests have not shown us their reasons for placing 
the day of judgment and accountability in another world, and 
although they have acknowledged that many things here mis- 
done cannot be restored after we have passed the grave, ye< 
every one must perceive how very derogatory it would be to 
our present character and popularity, to have every day re- 
garded as a day of judgment. And if our priests are not fa- 
voured with what they call immediate revelation (which alone 
can qualify them for so altering the religion of Jesus) still 
every one sees the propriety of shaping it to the manners of 
the age in which we live. For the traditions of our fathers, 
the practices and manners of our age being called, in scripture, 
the powers that be, must certainly conform thereto. Wherefore, 
to regard the day of judgment as being in this world, would be 
contemning those very institutions, which our priests say, arc 
the ordinations of Deity. And, although it must be confessed, 
that to place the time of judgment in this world, would tend 
greatly to equalize it, and to bring it into a state of great 
simplicity, innocence and unity, yet this would be breaking up 
the positive, dogmatical institutions of our priests ; and trani- 
pling under foot their most holy authority : nay, more, it 
would be dragging from the desk of lucre, many, who now 
glitter like stars in the unclouded firmament. Finally, so 
altered are the times, that there can be no doubt, but that, l( 
another Jesus should appear on the earth, he would admire 
the improvement which our priests have made in that relig- 
ion, which Jesus of Nazareth published in the temples and 



n 

synagogues of Judea. What encomiums he would pass upon 
the divine institution at Andover ! Yea, think ye, the holy Jesus 
would not delight to visit, where every thing is sacred; sa- 
cred oratory, sacred history, sacred musick, cacred professors, 
eacred students — where nothing is impious, nothing deistical, 
but the equalizing spirit of truth. And as for such a man as 
Peter, he would be so abashed at the depth and solidity of our 
popular divines, that he would think himself highly honoured, 
could he but officiate as a sub-deacon, or humble layman, in 
some of our splendid temples." 

So much digression to illustrate the specious pretences of 
modern divinity. To pursue the proposed analysis farther, 
would border so much upon repetition, that it may be well to 
leave the remaining analysis to the judgment of the reader. 
I will just notice, however, the strong tendency of the trans- 
lators of the bible, to give to the Deity all the form, shape 
and materiality which they could conveniently do, without 
Bhocking the common sense even of the most vulgar. The 
Greek word pneuma, is translated sometimes spirit, and at 
others ghost. The word ghost appears to have been intro- 
duced with about the same view wbieh the papists had, -in 
introducing into their worship images and statues, viz. to as- 
sist the vulgar in forming more solid and comprehensive ideas 
of the Deity ! ! But as it would have been too revolting to 
common decency, to have used the phrase, ghost of God, in- 
stead of, spirit of God, the translators carefully avoided using 
this expression. ' 

From what has been said, it evidently appears, that our 
popular theologians and professors of Christianity, with re- 
gard to what is meant by the terms inspiration, revelation, 
comforter, &c. have run into two great errours. In the first 
place, they do not accept and treat that as inspiration which 
is really such, and which is not only true revelation, but is 
precisely the same with that which prompted Jesus and his 
disciples to such wonderful acts of benevolence. And, in the 
second place, they have formed an idea, or image of in- 
spiration, which not being founded upon experience, they 
have so magnified and sanctified by connecting it with proph- 
esy and miracles (which have no necessary connexion with it) 
that they have prevented themselves from attending to, and un- 
derstanding those convictions of duty, which alone can work a 
way for their salvation from sin. In the language of scripture, 
" they have forsaken the Deity, the true fountain of water, and 
tiave hewn out to themselves broken cisterns, which can hold 
uo water." They have made the Deity a dead, unanproach- 



12 

able fountain, and have laid hold of the broken, leaky vessel 
of scripture to bear about the waters of life. Instead of try- 
ing the scripture (that idolized, partial map of Judaism and 
Christianity) by that knowledge of divine providence, which 
they have gained by their own experience, they pretend to 
decide upon the character and conduct of Deity, by a few 
sketches of his dealings. But this is no less a paradox than 
it would be for a person to contend that the fountains and 
rivers which meander through this continent, do not belong to 
it, because they do not, in all their meanderings and courses, 
correspond with the imperfect maps which geographers have 
as yet been able to draw. A geography, or a mere descrip- 
tion of the earth, is never taken by any man as a standard of 
judging of the surface of the earth and its various phenomena. 
The scripture is to the Deity and his providence, what a 
geography is to the earth, with its various appearances. And, 
as the peruser of a geography, pronounces its descriptions 
and maps true or untrue, as they agree or disagree with his 
previous knowledge of the original earth, so the reader of the 
scriptures, pronounces them true or untrue, as their descrip- 
tions agree or disagree with his previous knowledge of the 
providence of Deity* To pretend, therefore, that the scrip* 
tures are a perfect rule of faith and manners, is not only an 
absolute contradiction to universal practice, but is as great a 
piece of madness and deception, as it would be to persuade 
the people of this continent, that since they have a map of it, 
drawn by able men, they had better abandon the continent 
itself, and live upon, and cultivate the map. 

If prophesy and miracles are to be the only vouchers of in- 
spiration, we shall be obliged to throw away one half of the 
scriptures. For neither David, nor Job, nor Matthew, nor 
Mark, nor Luke, nor John, prophesied or wrought miracles 
as we know of. So that the people of their day had nothing 
at all, but their conduct, by which to ascertain the inspiration 
of their writings. And the love song of Solomon (with which 
he flattered and amused the daughter of Pharaoh) is so far 
from discovering a spirit of prophesy, or a power to work 
miracles, that, in my view of things, it is almost a miracle that 
any man of common sense, should think that that song every 
had the least reference to the kingdom of Deity. 

Most of the writings of William Law, of the Abbe Fenelon, 
and Francis Molinos, have every proof of being truly and 
particularly inspired, that the scriptures have. 

What unaccountable absurdities they run into, who pretend 
4:o have all the sympathies, feelings and passions of the scrip* 



13 

ture writers, and at the same time deny that these sympathies 
and holy feelings are produced by following the dictates of 
inspiration. Can an identity of feeling, views and virtues 
exist, without an identity in the causes which produce them ? 
Says John, " hereby we know that we dwell in him (Deity) 
and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit." Here, 
then, it is testified in the plainest and most unequivocal lan- 
guage, that it is the spirit of Deity, or light of truth, which is 
to assure men of their union and acceptability with him. But 
if the scriptures had been intended for this purpose, this 
wiiter should have told us so, and not have explicitly declar- 
ed, that the spirit of Deity was to perform this office. But 
let our divines shuffle, cavil and quibble as much as they 
please, in order, to smother the fire of truth, which they dread 
to have enter the hearts of men, they must finally admit the 
truth of the following proposition, viz. that, let the intima- 
tions of Deity come to us in what manner, or through what 
means they will, they must still be addressed to our under- 
standings, and we must judge of them whether they are really 
the intimations, of Deity, or of another. So that if men, at any 
time, by reading the scriptures, become impressed with a 
sense of duty to do any particular action, it is not the scrip- 
tures that impresses them, but the Deity. The Deity has 
not made the scriptures his vicegerent on earth, and therefore 
they are like every thing else, merely the occasion of divine 
intimations. 

The papist who wears the cross upon his breast, to revive in 
his mind the death and sufferings of Jesus of Nazareth, has the 
same reasons for considering that cross to be of divine appoint- 
ment, to guide him in his progress of virtue, as the protestant 
has for considering the bible to be of divine appointment, to 
guide him in the path of wisdom. The papist considers his cross 
as holy, sacred and infallible, as the protestant does his bible. 
And the protestant, who despises the cross, is just as impi-, 
ous and as infidel as the true christian is, who, laying aside 
the bible as the rule of life, follows the light of truth through 
all the various modes by which it may be communicated. 

The manner in which the meaning of the scriptures, is ob- 
tained, and the real (not the professed) use which all people 
make of these scriptures, clearly evince, that so far as they 
were written in the order of nature, or, which is the same 
thing, in the order of Deity, they are merely one, and not but 
one, of the works of Deity. An examination of their proper- 
ties, will serve to illustrate the preceding proposition. 

In the first place, they are an object of sight : and the man 



14 



who was born blind, or who has lost the use of his eyes, 
never, of himself, be able to read them. They are an in 



i, can 
instru- 
ment of sound, and are capable of as great a variety of notes, 
as the harp of David. In these two respects, they are like 
any other of the visible works of Deity ; and to a blind or 
deaf man are of the same worth. They are made of paper, a 
very combustible substance, and, consequently, like all other 
combustible substances, are liable to be destroyed by fire. — 
And the votaries of the scriptures feel as much anxiety and 
solicitude about the destruction of them, as the Grecians and 
Romans did, about the downfal of their idols of wood, stone 
and bras*. So that the scriptures, instead of being an anchor 
to the minds of their votaries, are rather like a tottering pre- 
cipice, whose expected fall keeps its beholders in constant 
jeopardy. 

But if men were to put a just estimate upon the scriptures;, 
and consider them as they really are, one among the ten thou- 
sand works of Deity, all this jeopardy about their fate, would 
be entirely annihilated. For it is impossible to conceive, 
that the scriptures were made in any more immediate manner 
by the Deity, than was man himself. Rivers, and animals, 
and trees, and birds, and fish, are all the immediate work- 
manship of the Deity; and they all have some particular 
meaning, which we obtain by observation and experience, as 
we do the meaning of the scriptures. Men have no idea, but 
that rivers were intended for the growth and sustenance of 
the vegetable and animal kingdoms. But how and where 
do they get this information? From the scriptures? No* 
They get it intuitively, or immediately, by an actual view of 
the objects themselves. Men learn the uses of vegetables 
and animals from their various textures, colours and shapes, 
without thinking of any other medium of information upon 
this subject. 

Paul found, from experience, that "the scriptures wereprof- 
itable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction." Other men 
find from experience, that fire is not only profitable for heating- 
bodies, but even necessary ; that rain is not only profitable 
for the growth of vegetables, but even necessary : that light 
is not only profitable for seeing, but even necessary. The 
farmer knows when to plant his seeds, when they come up 
from the ground, when they need the spade or the rake, when 
they want rain, when they have too much of it, and when they 
are ripe for the garner. But how does he know all this ? 
From the scripture ?' Men are acquainted with what they 
■call health and sickness, pain and anguish, joy and sorrow. 



with their various causes and remedies, but how came they 
by this acquaintance 1 Men can become philosophers, astron* 
©mers, ehymists, physicians, philanthropists ; they can be 
chaste, hospitable, sympathetick, and every thing which 
is good, yet, say some, not christians without the scrip- 
tures ! ! ! 

The Hindoo considers the waters of the Ganges as the only 
mediation between Deity and men. He thinks them as much 
the appointment of Deity to heal men of their sins, as the 
Christian does the mediation of Jesus by the shedding of his 
blood. The reason why the Hindoo considers the Ganges as 
the only mediator and saviour, is, that he has always been 
told so. 

That the waters of the Ganges were given by Deity for 
some useful purposes, there can be no doubt. But this don't 
p*ove that they are the only means of salvation for all men. 
So, the death of Jesus and many others, and the scriptures 
which give an account of them, might have been given to 
former ages for some useful purposes, but this is far from 
proving that they were intended as the only means of salva- 
tion. 

This proposition of the Hindoo, that the waters of the 
Ganges are the only mediator between God and men, will be 
disputed, and is disputed, by nearly all other nations. But 
the proposition, that the waters of the Ganges were intended 
for some useful purposes, will be granted by all mankind, 
That the bible was intended for the only rule of the life of 
man, will be disputed, and is now disputed, by five eighths 
of those who are acquainted with it. But that it was intended 
for some useful purposes, to those to whom it was addressed, 
will be universally admitted. Men object to the idea, that the 
bible was intended for, or is capable of, being a rule of life,, 
upon the same ground, that they do to the idea that the 
Ganges was intended for, or is capable of, making men inno- 
cent and happy. 

But instead of there being only one bible, there are no less 
than four, all proposed as rules of life and means of happi- 
ness. The papists have a commentary upon every verse of 
the old bible, and they pretend to take their commentary as a 
rule of life. The Calvinists have a commentary upon every 
verse of the bible, and they pretend to take their commentary 
as a rule of life. The Arminians have a commentary upon 
every verse of the bible, and they pretend to take their com- 
mentary as a rule of life. The Universalists have a com- 
mentary upon every verse of the bible, and they pretend to 



lb 

take their commentary as a rule of life. Here, now, is a book, 
which, each of the abovementioned denominations regard as 
the result of divine dictation. But as each of these sects 
have a sense of this book nearly opposite to the other, they 
must either all be in the dark, or three of them at least. 
Now allowing, as we must, that each of them stand an equal 
chance of being in the right, their knowledge and hopes of 
happiness, or heaven, are just about as good as money in a 
lottery, which gives three blanks to a prize. And the conduct 
of these different sects, their triumph in success, their disap- 
pointment in not being able to get the mastery, their extreme 
zeal and solicitude for the exclusive advancement of their 
own systems, and their persecution of each other, clearly 
evince. that they think religion a mere lottery, which the 
Deity has made of his creatures, and which will not be drawn 
till they pass into the next world. The Calvinists hold the 
matter thus : The Deity has made a great lottery of eternal 
happiness, wherein every verse of the bible becomes a ticket^ 
which is entrusted to a priest, who, from Sabbath to Sabbath 
must rehearse its number, and descant upon its chance of 
drawing a prize. The Deity knows when he sells the tickets, 
who will draw blanks and who prizes, but notwithstanding, 
sells his tickets all of a price. The purchasers of the tickets 
are to act just as though they were going to draw prizes. At 
the day, called day of judgment, the game will be up; and 
every man hear the event of his' purchase. But people of 
sound judgment will not embark in such a dangerous pol* 
icy as this. But notwithstanding i think all these denomina- 
tions to be grossly in the dark,, it is impossible for me to 
think half so bad of any of them, as they are known to think 
of each other. I think them all in some measure influenced 
by the principle of truth, though they are unwilling to yield 
to its guidance. 

Man, to be happy, must have a distinct command for every 
particular action. No matter through what medium this com- 
mand comes to him, or how he learns it, provided he receives 
it before he acts. But the scriptures are not only utterly in- 
adequate for such a purpose ; but, it appears to be impossi- 
ble that any thing can be equal to it, short of Nature herself? 
who is always near to inform us of our duty. At the same 
time, an immediate, particular command of Deity, is in my 
mind, nothing more or less than a positive sense of duty, which 
most men speak of, as something very weil known to ihem. 
Paul says, that he had an angel sent to him to inform him that 
he must go to Rome, but this angel means nothing more than 



17 

a lively sense of duly. When the writers of the scriptures* 
speak of the spirit giving them utterance, they meant that 
their utterance was increased by a sense of duty. These 
bold metaphors ought to be analyzed, and the meaning of them 
detected, and not thrown away as the result of fanatacism. 

Paine, Voltaire, and others acted no part of the philosopher, 
nor of the philanthropist, in their promiscuous ridicule of the 
scripture ideas, which they never in reality understood, but 
only combatted those ideas which papists and protestants 
affixed to the scriptures. The investigation of truth, was not 
so uniformly their object, as the fabrication of a building of 
their own, which, perhaps, was as great a monument of fan- 
aticism as the one they opposed. They treated the scrip- 
tures as a piece of imposture solely because, with all their 
professions of philosophy, they had not patience enough to in- 
vestigate their true meaning. They took their ideas of the 
bible as much upon hearsay, as* the papists and protestants did 
theirs. They made use of the same bloody arguments to 
destroy false systems, as the papists did to build them up. 
And had the whole world been catholick priests, the guillotine 
of the illuminati, would have laboured till every head had been 
severed from its trunk. But to conclude, the omnipresence 
of Deity, entirely excludes the necessity of our having any 
other dictator of action. All we have to do, is to learn what 
the true Deity is, and then to obey his mandates. 

Did we ever hear of a king, who, ever, while seated in his 
own council-chamber, employed an ambassadour to make bis 
speeches, and to transact his business ? This would not 
only be, to the last degree, degrading to a king, but it 
would be a positive proof of his incapacity to hold that ele- 
vated station. Much less, then, does Deity employ commis- 
sioners to impart his instructions to men. The presence of 
any being whatever, precludes the idea of his employing a 
representative, whether in writing or in person. 



"tt\€ 



IS 



THE CHARACTER OP JESUS. 



From what has been said, in this number, upon the omni* 
presence of Deity, the truth of that doctrine of the Calvinist& 
naturally follows, which makes the soul of Jesus of Nazareth 
mysteriously united to Deity. But at the same time it wilt 
appear equally evident, that the soul of every other man is as 
mysteriously united to Deity as was the soul of Jesus. For 
if the Deity is omnipresent, he is as closely united to the soul 
of every man as he possibly can be, and not be that soul. 
The will of Jesus, as it respects its submission, was, from the 
history of him, comple'ely reconciled to the will of his Father. 
In this complete reconciliation, consisted all his superiority- 
above his brethren. 

But as the supposed character of Jesus of Nazareth, has 
been, and still is, made the foundation of the wildest and 
most unnatural speculations that ever exercised the minds of 
men, it appears necessary to inquire, what idea they had of 
his character, who were his original and best imformed dis- 
ciples, who, perhaps, were his townsmen, his neighbours, and 
his playmates. In the nature and course of things, it would 
devolve upon such persons to give a true and explicit account 
of the birth, and early character of one of their number. And 
from such persons alone should we expect to have a true and 
warrantable description of a person's character. But with- 
out controversy, we tine] that the history of Jesus, has been 
given by some one, or more, of a people called Nazarenes : 
whish name implies either, that those who bore it were towns- 
mea with, and consequently early acquaintances of Jesus, or 
ttoet they held to opinions precisely the same with those per- 
sons who lived in Nazareth, and who were acquainted with 
Jesus and his doctrine. 

Mosheim, who was opposed to the sentiments peculiar to 
that class of christians, called Nazarenes, gives the following 
account of them. " This body of judaising christians, which 
set Christ and Moses upon an equal foot in point of authority, 
was afterwards divided into two sects, extremely different 
both in their rights and in their opinions, and distinguished by 
the names of Nazarenes and Ebionites. The former were not 
placed by the ancients, in the heretical register ; but the lat- 
ter were considered as a sect, whose tenets were destructive 
oft ie fundamental principles of the christian religion. These 



13 

sects made use of a gospel, or history of Christ, different frorii 
that which is received among us, and concerning which there 
have been many disputes among the learned.* The term 
Nazarenes, was not originally the name of a sect, but that 
which distinguished the disciples of Jesus in general. And 
as those whom the Greeks called christians, received the name 
of Nazarenes among the Hebrews, this latter name was not 
considered a mark of ignominy or contempt." 

<s Mr. Maclaine, who translated Mosheim's history from 
the Latin, adds, by way of note, " That the learned Mr. Jones 
looked upon these two sects, Nazarenes and Ebionites as dif- 
fering but very little from each other. He attributed to them 
both, much the same doctrines, and alleges, that the Ebionites 
had only made some small additions to the old Nazarene 
system." Indeed, it appears very improbable, that there 
should have been any material difference between them, since, 
as Mosheim says, this body of christians, put Moses and 
Christ upon the same foot in point of authority, even before 
they were divided into two sects, In what respect, it may be 
asked, did the gospel of the Nazarenes differ from that receiv- 
ed among other christians ? Was it not entirely in this, that 
the former made Jesus the natural son of Joseph and Mary 5 
and who was, therefore, upon a level with Moses in point of 
authority ? The Nazarenes were sometimes called Galileans. 
" Are not all these which speak, Galileans ?" Nazareth was 
a city in the province of Galilee. Peter was one of those 
who were called Galileans, and probably was of the city of 
Nazareth, and an early acquaintance of Jesus. From the pe- 
culiar manner in which Peter expresses himself about Jesus, 
there can be no doubt, but that he thought him the natural son 
of Joseph and Mary. In the acts of the apostles, he is repre- 
sented as speaking of Jesus as follows : " Ye men of Israel, 
hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God 
among you," $c. " Then Peter said, Gold and silver have I 
none ; but such as I have give I unto thee : in the name of 
Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk " "Be it known unto 
you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of 
Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye have crucified," &c. This man- 
ner of expression, speaks volumes. Peter of Nazareth, Jesus 
of Nazareth, and Paul of Tarsus, are expressions of similar 
import ; and imply a perfect equality in point of authority. 
Nor did Peter ever speak of Jesus in any other way than as 

•The reader is referred to a history of Fabricius, who gives a full account 
otf the history, or gospel of the Nazarenes. 



20 

a man. Mark was, beyond all doubt, a Nazarene ; he says 
nothing of the miraculous conception of Jesus, but almost 
places the question beyond a doubt, that Jesus was born like 
other men. His account, in the 4th chapter of his history, of 
the preaching of Jesus in a synagogue of his own town, op 
country ; and of the questions which arose among the citizens 
of Nazareth, mean a great deal. " Is not this the carpenter, 
the son of Joseph and Mary r ihe brother of James, and Joses, 
and Juda, and Simon ? and are not his sisters here with us ? 
And they were offended at him.' , Those, who asked these 
questions, knew Jesus as a carpenter, and they knew also the 
whole family so well as to call them by name. Would such 
language ever have been used by people, who believed in the 
story which is related about the miraculous conception of 
Jesus ? Any one who attends particularly to the language of 
Peter, Mark and John, will perceive a great difference be- 
T "een the expressions of these writers, and the expressions of 
V...J other writers of the histories of Jesus. 

The consideration, that all the first disciples of Jesus, were 
called Nazarenes ; that a part of them continued to bear this 
name for the space of two or three centuries ; that they had 
a history of their leader, which made him a man like them- 
selves, is sufficient of itself to prove, that these disciples of 
Jesus were in the right, and that those who differed from them 
were in an errour, though they might, in time, have become 
the greater body of christians. 

Is it probable, candid reader, that a class of men among 
whom were many of the early acquaintances of Jesus ; that 
a class of men, who had every opportunity of knowing the 
early character of their leader ; who had nothing to expect 
*but contempt from the nobles and the priests of Palestine ; 
and whose very name carried in it. nothing but the idea of 

i poverty and meanness, is it probable I say, that such a class 

of men, should have a history of the origin of their sect, a sect 

^ from which all other sects of christians, were derived, and 

that history, in the most important part of it, be false ? Shall 

j a citizen of Nazareth give the history of Jesus, and that his- 

tory have less truth in it than the history of Luke, or any 
other foreigner, who wrote altogether from hearsay ? Shall 
the course of nature be reversed, in order, to comport with 
the bigotry and prejudices of a particular class of men ? Shall 
the fountain be less pure than its streams, which are always 
liable to corruption ? Or shall the sun have less effulgence, 
than the smaller bodies which it illumines? This certainly 
appears to be the idea of those who would call the history of 



21 

the Nazarenes less correct, than the history of Luke, or the 
one which is erroneously ascribed to Matthew. 

It was formerly a matter of much doubt, whether Matthew 
ever wrote that history which is ascribed to his name ; and 
a little attention to the language of the history itself, will in- 
crease this doubt, if not entirely convince us that he never 
wrote it. How could a person, who was present to all the 
scenes and events which he relates, avoid telling us, that he 
saw and heard such and such things ? How could a disciple 
relate the whole story of his master's life, and never once 
mention himself? Where shall we find a historian, ancient or 
modern, who relates nothing but what he saw, heard, and 
handled, and yet, through the whole course of his history, has 
no such words as I, we, us, and me ? Paul, Peter, Luke, and 
neaHy all the old testament writers make use of the five per- 
sonal pronouns ; but we see nothing of this in the history as- 
cribed to Matthew. What unlettered Hebrew who never 
moved out of his own province as we know of, ever wrote so 
elegant a piece of Greek history as that ascribed to Matthew 1 
Who, in mentioning himself, ever uses such language as 
the following ? Mat. 9th chap, verse 9. And as Jesus passed 
forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the 
receipt of custom ; and he saith unto him follow me." Here 
Matthew becomes the subject of the story, instead of the 
writer of it. In the next chapter, we find something equally 
unaccountable, on the supposition, that Matthew wrote the 
history ascribed to him. " Now the names of the twelve 
apostles are these ; the first Simon, who is called Peter, and 
Andrew his brother ; James, the son of Zebudee and John 
his brother; Philip and Bartholomew ; Thomas and Matthew 
the publican." From this language, or any other used in the 
whole history, we might as well infer, that Simon, Bartholo- 
mew, or any other of the disciples wrote it, as that Matthew 
wrote it. Because Matthew is written over every other page 
of the history, it by no means follows, that he wrote it. The 
compilers of the scriptures put this name (o it. It was, most 
probably, written by a Grecian, whose information respecting 
the subjects on which he wrote, was principally hearsay. 
And it is very evident, that Luke copied the two first chapters 
ofhis history from this. So that there is no difficulty in ac- 
counting for the two histories of the miraculous conception of 
Jesus. 

Hearsay evidence had a much greater influence over the 
minds of men in that age, than in this. That story of the 
miraculous conception of Jesus, coming through the channel 



22 

of hearsay, might have been adopted by a historian with the 
greatest sincerity and honesty, and still be incorrect. A re- 
port of that kind once got up, in that age or in any age, would 
readily find children, old women, and weak minded men 
enough to spread it as a truth. 

The early part of the lives of most men of distinction, be- 
ing but very little known, is generally guessed at, and con- 
sequently the account of it, among sound minds, have but 
very little credibility. Biographers and historians, in order, 
to make out a complete account of the lives of their heroes, 
seem to feel justified in guessing at the substance of the ear- 
lier parts of them. But notwithstanding the want of credi- 
bility in (hose two accounts of the miraculous conception of 
Jesus, they, through some means or other, have come down to 
us, while the other twenty-two histories concerning Jesus, 
have slumbered with the lecords of a thousand ages. Had 
the history of the Nazarenes, come down to us, the whole 
body of popery with its ten thousand branches of Calvinism, 
Arminianism, and Universalism, now spreading in every di- 
rection, would never have existed. 

According to Luke, " there were many who took it in hand 
to set forth a declaration of those things which were most as- 
suredly believed among them>" i. e. among the Grecians, for 
Luke Wrote in Greek, and addressed his account to Theophi- 
Jus, a man bearing a Grecian name. But if the Grecians 
and Hebrews had even then been of one mind about the char- 
acter of Jesus, one honest history would have been sufficient. 
The very reason, therefore, of their having been so many 
histories written, seems to have been a diversity of opinions 
about some parts of the subject of their writing. But the 
plain truth of- the matter seems to be about as follows : The 
Hebrews who were the countrymen and acquaintances of 
Jesus, believed him to be the natural son of Joseph and Mary. 
But as their religion began to advance towards the west 
among the Grecians and Romans, who were full of credulity 
and wonderfully given to the habit of making their heroes and 
great ones, the descendants and progeny of the gods, Jesus of 
Nazareth, was gradually, and, perhaps, innocently, transform- 
ed into a God. When Jesus had become so far analogous to 
the Grecian deities, as to be enrolled among their number, his 
doctrine would go down with all imaginable ease; and would 
soon multiply advocates to an uncommon degree. With. this 
set out, the Roman and Grecian converts soon become the 
finest numerous, and consequently engrossed full power to 
transmit to posterity whatever accounts best suited the philos* 



2^ 

ophy of their age. The histories ascribed to Matthew, Mark, 
Luke and John were selected, and the rest thrown aside. As 
the Nazarenes, or the first disciples of Jesus began to die 
away, their gospel, gradually sunk into oblivion with them. 
And in order, for the history of the Hebrews to come down 
to us, it must have passed through the hands of the Grecians 
and Romans, who were enemies to it, and consequently 
would have every inducement to prevent its transmission to 
posterity. 

Mosheim says [vol. I. page 65th] " that the fame of Jesus, 
had grown so illustrious in the first century, that the emperor 
Tiberius, proposed his being enrolled among the Gods of 
Rome, which the opposition of the senate hindered from ta- 
king effect." This testimony of Eusebius and Irenius from 
whom Mosheim takes it, shows that Jesus was not in the first 
century, made a God, though the minds of some, were already 
prepared to give him a transformation. It is very probable 
that Jesus was soon after this made a God ; and that this was 
the origin of Arianism which in time grew up into trinitarian- 
ism. Thus we see, in some measure, the steps by which the 
humble carpenter of Nazareth has in the minds of men be- 
come a Deity. 

Errata.— Page 3d, 16tb line from the top, for that read than. — Page 5th, 
*7th line from the top, for expressed read described. — Page 10th, 15th line from 
the bottom, read we must certainly, C-c— Page 12th, 7th line from the bot- 
tom, for every read ever. 



Box Ho.. / 



Tim <®mMmiA% MA<mmT$ 

NUMBER T. 



BY DAVID B. SLACK. 



BAPTISM. 

That kind of ware, which is of so delicate a consistency as 
to require more caution and vigilance to preserve it, than 
people are naturally capable of, is worse than useless; be- 
cause it not only occasions a painful and useless solicitude in 
the breast of its possessor, but a much greater waste of money 
and time to purchase, and to preserve it against the unavoida- 
ble casualties of domestick use, than that which is of so dura- 
ble a nature as to supersede the necessity of caution in pre- 
serving it, and an extravagant sum in the purchase of it. But 
however great the folly and hazard of this kind of traffick, 
there nevertheless have been many, of all ages and nations, 
whose greatest boast it has been to embark all their talents 
and knowledge, in this eventually impoverishing commerce. 
In a traffick of this nature, we find employed those theological 
artizans who are continually manufacturing and disposing of 
volumes upon volumes of fustian and dogmas, which, in 
their own language, " are designed to support," not to prove, 
the divine authority of the positive institutions of the bible, 
and the indispensable necessity of men's coming under the 
authority of them. 

It were almost enough to create a smile in the countenance 
of wisdom and holiness, to take only a cursory survey of the 
almost incredible efforts of those worldly watchmen, to pre- 
serve, to solemnize, and even to deify, with Romish infatua- 
tion, those local and temporary ordinances and institutions, in 
the adoption and usage of which, the immaculate Jesus exhib- 
ited the wisdom of the serpent, in order to preserve the inno- 
cence of the dove. A moment's consideration will be suffi- 
cient to convince any lover of truth, that that being, who, of 
all others, is the most condescending, the most tender, and the 
most wise, does not require his creatures to labour in a round 



of useless, and often inconvenient ordinances, the appoint- 
ment of which proceeded from a species of revelation, which 
is denied to exist by those very persons who think that there 
is much religion in the practice of these ordinances, and none 
without them. 

What an impious impeachment of the divine wisdom and 
goodness, is it for men to pretend that the Deity leaves bis 
designs and commands so much in darkness and ambiguity, 
as to require that monstrous size of lumber, which now bur- 
dens the shelves of booksellers, in order to make them intelli- 
gible and obligatory. And much less reason have we to re- 
gard those commands as divine and obligatory, about an obe- 
dience to which pretended christians have, for the space of 
seventeen hundred years, been quarrelling with, and brow- 
beating each other to an extent which has surfeited even the 
worldly mind with their folly and impertinence. 

The ordinances to which I chiefly refer, are those celebrat- 
ed two called baptism and the Lord's supper. Though the 
latter, I fear, has been rather a supper of the priests, by 
which they have fattened themselves, while they have 
emaciated their devoted followers, and drained their pockets 
of those hard earnings which should have been their support 
in time of need. 

And although the divisions and contentions about these two 
ordinances, are of themselves sufficient to prove that they are 
to us neither divine, nor obligatory, yet other proofs may be 
necessary to convince those who have let priest-craft, not 
religion, take such a strong hold of their minds, as to disenable 
them from regaining their liberty. 

In the first place, I shall examine the grounds on which 
baptism and the supper are practised, and show that these 
grounds are local and particular ; and in the next place, show 
that another ordinance, which is much more plainly and pos- 
itively expressed in the scriptures, is, and has been, omitted 
for several hundred years, without the least compunction ; and 
has not even been considered a command divine and obliga- 
tory. Which inconsistency is sufficient to prove, that the two 
former ordinances are too nugatory to employ the attention 
of mankind. 

The ordinance of water-baptism is said to have originated 
with John, whose dispensation formed the middle link be- 
tween Judaism and Christianity. In the country of Palestine, 
where the temperature of the atmosphere was so uniformly 
mild and moderately fervent as to give its pure streams a 
temperament fitted to refresh and invigorate the body, without 



endangering its health, immersion was a very proper emblem 
of that tranquil, contented, and happy state of mind, which is 
the reward of the truly righteous. We have no authority for 
supposing, that immersion was used merely as an emblem of 
repentance, as is generally supposed. In that country, it 
was of positive utility to the health and cleanliness of the 
body. The waters of certain rivers and springs, were found, 
by experience, to be effectual remedies for many troublesome 
diseases. So that baptism was not in its origin a mere dead 
work, or positive institution, and, consequently, of no avail to 
the person upon whom it was administered. It bore no anal- 
ogy to many of the ordinances of Moses, the use of which 
Paul considered as a dead work, and, in the name of God, de- 
manded a turning from them. Had there been no immediate 
and positive utility in the practice itself, it is more than pro- 
bable that baptism would never have been thought of; or had 
the propagators of Christianity originated in some more 
northern climate, this ordinance would never have arisen to 
perplex and bewilder mankind. It appears to be a mere 
creature of the climate of Palestine, fostered solely for its use. 
But the reason, which those who practice it, give for so 
doing, is, they say, because it is a divine ordinance. Yet 
should most of them be asked why it was a divine ordinance, 
they would say, because we practice it. But as these people 
hold that all the actions and commands of John, were divine, 
I presume that they will join with me, in the opinion, that 
there was not any thing more peculiarly divine in his bap- 
tism, than in any other of his practices, such as relieving the 
distressed, doing justice and confessing sin, all which are 
very lively emblems and signatures of repentance. It is said 
that John wore a leathern girdle about his loins ; and that his 
meat was locust and wild honey. Can any one doubt, but what 
these were as divine ordinances as was his baptism ? They 
most certainly had more utility in them, and are much more 
significant emblems of innocence and purity of heart. And 
for aught we know, it might have been a very prominent doc- 
trine in the divinity of John, that all his followers should wear 
a leathern girdle, and eat nothing but locust and wild honey. 
For the scripture says, that we have not a history of a thou- 
sandth part of the things that were done in those days. I 
have no doubt but that John thought his leathern girdle, his 
locust and his wild honey, equally, if not more, indispensable 
than his baptism. For, a girdle must have been a very com- 
modious thing in the journeys and travels of that unparalleled 



philanthropist. And his locust and wild honey made him « 
very wholesomn and cheap food. 

1 recollect of once seeing a very simple, honest, old, bap- 
tist preacher, who wore a girdle, in imitation of John (though 
not a leathern one, perhaps that would have been rather too 
wide from the fashion of the times) and whether he thought his 
girdle, or his baptism, the most divine, or of the most impor- 
tance, 1 am unable to say, though doubtless he considered 
them both to be equally of a divine origin. This man 
ate ueither locusts, nor wild honey ; for which palpable 
omission he had a very good excuse — these articles happen- 
ed not to be a very plenteous luxury of our American cli- 
mate. 

It is very easy to be seen, that had the plan of nature been 
so ordered as to have had but one climate upon the whole 
face of our globe, we might have imitated John and Jesus, in 
many more equally important respects, than we are. now able 
to do. Water, bread and wine, are the natural productions of 
all warm climates. From which circumstance alone, I think 
these articles to be so frequently regarded as divine ordi- 
nances. And so they are divine ordinances, in a very impor- 
tant sense ; for every good and perfect gift like these are from 
God, immediately from him. Rain, and snow, and raiment, 
and bread, and wine, and milk, are as immediately from Deity 
as the inspiration of Paul was ; though for thousands of years, 
they have been the common sustenance of the human species, 
as well as of thousands of other beings. These invaluable 
productions are all divine ordinances, but they are no more 
divine atone time than at another, at one place than at anoth- 
er, on Sunday than on Monday j and they are no better em- 
blems in one quarter of the globe, than another. The same 
Deity that produces them, administers them impartially to all 
his creatures, to the Hindoo, to the Bramin, to the Arab, and 
to the Christian* O the unbounded goodness and mercy of 
that being who loves, preserves, and truly regards all his 
creatures ! 

Water, and bread, and wine, are as much representatives 
of the resurrection, death and sufferings of Paul, and John, and 
Peter, as they are of the resurrection, death, and sufferings of 
Jesus. They are the common provisions of Deity. Nor 
did Jesus wish his posterity to sympathize with his sufferings, 
any more than with the sufferings of his brethren, male and 
female. For he and his companions, bled, and laboured* 
and died in one common cause, the reconciliation of an alien- 
ated world to Almighty God. They were all divine mediators 



and saviours. For, says John, " let|him know, who hath con- 
verted a sinner from the errourof his ways, that he hath saved 
a soul from death." In a word, the book of life is written out 
of the common blood of the saints- 

But what gives John's baptism, a peculiar validity and au- 
thority among the professors of our day, is, that it was sub- 
mitted to by Jesus, though John himself says, that the baptism 
of Jesus, or the baptism of the principle of truth, was of a na- 
ture far transcending, that of water. As much as to say, that 
he had just mellowed the ground a little, by giving a lively sim- 
ilitude of that baptism, which was to save the world from sin ; 
and to compose that mysterious key which alone can open 
the door of the kingdom of God. It is very certain, that the 
use of water baptism, lost its authority soon after the death of 
Jesus. And whatever estimate Jesus might have put upon 
the baptism of John, it is said that he never baptized any 
himself. Perhaps, it would have been as well for his disci- 
ples to have imitated their master, in this respect as well as 
in any other. 

To reason fairly and conclusively upon these things, we 
ought to be perfectly acquainted with all the previous, con- 
comitant, and subsequent circumstances of the ministry of 
John, of Jesus, and of the apostles. Were we in the actual 
possession of all the information of which the lapse and waste 
of time have deprived us, we «ould tell very easily whether 
we ought to wear John's leathern girdle, or to practice his 
baptism or both, or to omit them both. But since we have 
but an epitome of what was transacted in the time of John, 
we must make the best of what we have, by availing our- 
selves of all the ascertainable facts, and by founding our 
scripture conclusions solely upon them. From what has been 
said, it appears, that the ordinance of baptism, would not have 
been introduced,|but for its positive utility, and the mild nature 
of the climate of Palestine. 

The frequent practice of immersion among the Jews very 
naturally suggested to John (who was in a temper, to make a 
moral upon every thing which chanced to meet his view) the 
peculiar similitude which it bore to that mental state of purity, 
which characterizes the heart of the righteous. 

But water baptism is said to inherit its divinity from several 
other sources. It may be well to observe here, that when 
people contend, that baptism is a divine ordinance, they 
probably mean, that it being once commanded or permitted 
by God, it is, consequently, universally and eternally obliga- 
tory. But this is one of the absurdest ideas, that ever was 



6 

{mposed upon mankind. Paul was commanded to go to 
Rome, and Peter to visit the house of Cornelius. But who 
is fanatick enough to pretend, that these commands are at 
present obligatory upon mankind ? The ordinance of water- 
baptism was as much a particular command, if commanded 
at all, as either of the above mentioned ; and is no more ob- 
ligatory upon any person now, than those given to Paul and 
Peter. 

But it is very easy to perceive the reason, why those com- 
mands which were given to men eighteen hundred years ago, 
are thought, by some, to be obligatory upon us. It is be- 
cause many of these commands are of so general a nature, as 
to admit of a pretty general practice, and not because they 
were ever intended to be obligatory upon any, but those who 
received them. 

There are several scripture phrases which are accounted, 
by some, as indubitable proofs, that baptism was intended 
to be perpetually obligatory. One of them reads thus : 
" Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot 
enter into the kingdom of God." Here the w T ord water is 
very intimately connected with the word spirit, and is sup- 
posed to mean the element of water, as much as the word 
spirit does the power of God. From whence we see that the 
bare circumstance of juxtaposition is supposed to give wa- 
ter baptism, a certain portion^of divinity. . But we have as 
much reason for supposing that the word water, in this place, 
is synonymous with the word spirit, as that, in another place, 
the word fire is synonymous with the phrase holy ghost. 
cl He shall baptise you with lire and the holy ghost." In the 
scriptures, an idea is frequently expressed several times 
over, in order to give it the more force. This is done, some- 
times, by repeating the same word, as where Jesus says, 
" verily, verily 5" and at others by using synonymous words, 
or words in a synonymous sense. But bigots are ever scru- 
pulous in giving the language of the bible as much again 
meaning as it ever had. They stuff the words of the bible 
with their own idle notions, and then call them the notions of 
Deity, because they are expressed in such sacred language. 
In the two verses following the one I have just quoted, the 
word water is omitted by the writer as superfluous though the 
same idea is continued* " That, says the writer, which is 
born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is bom of the spirit. 
is spirit." The word spirit alone answers, in this verse, to ex- 
press all that is necessary in order for a man to be born again. 
But had the dement of water been referred to, by Jesus, he 



would have repeated the word, in the last quoted verse. An- 
other passage, supposed to favour the practice of water bap- 
tism, is contained in the last chapters of Matthew and Mark - § 
where the same idea is differently expressed by the two wri- 
ters : " Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to 
every creature. He that believeth and is baptised shall be 
saved, but he that [only] believeth not shall be damned." 
But in this verse, as in the others, it is evident, that the words 
" believeth and is baptised" mean one and the same thing. 
For in the last clause of the above quoted verse, the words, 
" is baptised," ape omitted, and the same idea is expressed, by 
the single word " believeth," which was expressed in the first 
clause by the words "believeth and is baptised." But had 
the words, " is baptised," referred to water baptism, and not 
to the baptism of the holy spirit, they should have been re- 
peated in the last clause of the verse, which only says, " he 
that believeth not shall be damned.'' If a person is to be 
saved from sin by believing in the truth and by water bap« 
tism in conjunction, he ought not to be condemned barely for 
not believing, but for not believing and the neglect of water 
baptism together. For if belief and water baptism are equal- 
ly the commands of the Deity, disobedience to the latter is 
just as criminal as disobedience to the former. 

It is very worthy of our notice, 1 think, that almost every 
practice and ordinance of the Jews is made use of, by Jesus 
and his disciples, to express the operation of truth upon the 
mind. This manner of expression bad a wonderful tenden- 
cy to nullify the superstitious notions and rites of the Jews, 
and to impress upon their minds, truth itself. The baptism 
of John is evidently used in several places in the form of a 
metaphor to express more fully to the people of that day, the 
principle of truth. Says Luke, in his acts of the apostles, 
" John, indeed, baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized 
with the holy spirit not many days hence." In the last clause 
of this verse, the word baptized, which literally means im- 
mersed in water, is used to signify an operation of Deity upon 
the mind, convincing it of sin, and bringing it into a state of 
peace. Had this verse said, that Moses practised circumcis- 
ion, but ye shall be circumcised in heart, and in mind, pro* 
lessors of Christianity would have thought it a sufficient war- 
rant for laying circumcision aside. And in my mind, this 
verse in the acts, clearly conveys the idea that Jesus consid- 
ered the baptism of John m the same light as he did the cer- 
emonies of the Jews. 



^8 

What Paul says, in this same book, amounts to a full proof 
that baptism by water was then about to be laid aside. " And 
Paul finding certain disciples, he said unto them, have ye re- 
ceived the holy ghost,* since ye believed ? And they said 
unto him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any 
holy spirit. And he said unto them, unto what then were ye 
baptized, and they said, unto John's baptism. When they 
heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." 
What is here said upon the. subject is sufficient to convince 
any candid person, that Paul knew of no other baptism but 
that of the holy truth. The question, " Unto what then were 
ye baptized," together with the answer of these disciples, 
show that they were rather nominally disciples than real ones 
as yet. 

But another, and, perhaps, the most weighty argument in 
favour of John's baptism, is drawn from the circumstance, 
that it was practiced by some of the disciples after the death 
of their master. But any person of consideration, will see 
that merely the death of Jesus, made no alteration with re- 
spect to the fulfilment, or abolition of the Jewish ceremonies, as 
well as all other ceremonies, which come to an end, only as they 
are perceived to be dead and useless works. The rites and 
ceremonies of the Jews, have not even now come fully to an end, 
although Jesus has been dead for many hundred years. The 
Jews remain a distinct people, and will remain so, till they 
become convinced, that they are upon a level with all other 
people in point of acceptability with God. The death of 
Jesus, did not do away circumcision, and several other of the 
Jewish ordinances, even among his most immediate disciples: 
for they were practised, in several instances, with good con- 
science. Jt is true also, that water baptism might have been 
and undoubtedly was, in some instances, practiced after the 
death of Jesus ; but these instances, it will appear, were alto- 
gether among those, who, like Apollos, had not been fully let 
into the simple nature of the gospel, and, therefore, they were 
not as yet prepared to lay aside a practice which was sanc- 
tioned by so divine a personage as John. 

It is certain, if Paul is to be credited, that he never admin- 
istered the baptism of John, but in three instances, which he 
very particularly enumerates. By way of reproof to the Cor- 

*This translation of the words agion pneuma apperrs to me to be a species 
of imposition upon the multitude For the English word ghost signifies some 
visible appearance, which goes and comes at certain times, when no such thing- 
is meant by the Greek xvords as used in this place. The translation should 
be holy power, holy truth, or holy spirit, 



a 

tnthians who were then quarrelling about baptism, he says, 
w 1 thank God, that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and 
Gaius, lest any should say that 1 had baptized in mine own 
name. And 1 baptized also the household of Stephanus, be- 
sides I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ 
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. '? By this it 
seems, that Paul had long since seen that water baptism was a 
superfluous, unnecessary thing, and had, therefore, omitted 
the use of it. He had passed beyond this into more sublime 
and delightful views of the gospel, which he was the better 
qualified to preach, by reason of his entire disengagements 
from all the appendages and thraldom of Judaism. But if Paul 
could preach the gospel, in its truth and purity, without the 
use of water, is there not as much safety in following his ex- 
ample, in this respect, as in following that of Philip or any 
other of the apostles who did use baptism, but who, in eonse-? 
quence of it, fell into contentions and disputes, thereby losing 
their liberty ? Paul says, that he was sent to preach the 
gospel 5 if so, and he truly obeyed the one who sent him, he 
did not preach as some now do (who pretend to be sent) that 
men must be immersed in water or sprinkled with it, in order, 
to be true subjects of the gospel, and partakers of all its ad? 
vantages. 

In this, as well as in all northern climates, there are several 
positive objections to the practice of immersion. One very- 
important objection is, that the similitude which, in warm 
climates, immersion has to a calm, contented and benevolent 
state of mind, is, in this cold region, entirely lost. What 
similitude can there be between the mental state of that per- 
son, who has entered the kingdom of peace and righteousness, 
where sorrow, and sighing, and pain, and anguish are fled 
away ; and an immersion (as is frequently the case) into some 
frosty, chilly pond, river, or sea ? The mind of the specta- 
tor is immediately shocked at sueh a scene, and involuntarily 
pronounces it a much fitter emblem of madness, insanity and 
the most violent emotions of distress. Instead of cleansing, 
refreshing, invigorating, and bringing the body into a temper^ 
ament corresponding to that of the peaceful mind, it benumbs, 
chills, and affects the whole system, in such a manner, as very 
often to raise the sympathy of spectators, almost as much as 
though the person had thrown himself upon a funeral pile* 
In a word, it is rather a signature of death than of life. 

And what is equally strange, is, that it matters noi, with the* 
advocates of baptism, whether the water be salt or fresh> 
cleansing or the reverse, a river or a pond; provided they 
2 



come to what may be called water, A few years ago, tliei fe 
was, hi the town of AHleborough, an immersion by a baptist 
priest, which, for vulgarity and scandal to all religion, equals 
any thing related in the annals of Hindostan. The place 
selected for the display of this fancied representation of the 
new birth, was a nauseous, filthy goose pond, in circumference 
about four rods, in depth, perhaps, three or four feet, environ- 
ed with mud about ankle deep. About this pond was gather- 
ed a multitude of people, some shocked at the indecorum and 
gross extravagance of the tragedy, some almost exhausted 
with excess of laughter at this climax of incongruity, while 
the rest and more sedate were employed in singing a most 
clamorous canto of promiscuous ascription to the Deity, in 
order to preserve any tolerable equilibrium between positive 
lewdness and a decent sobriety. Meanwhile the priest was 
labouring to convince his audience, of the analogy between* 
the transaction in which he was then engaged, and the bap- 
tism of Jesus in the river Jordan. But the best that can be 
said of this farcical, squalid scene, is, that the nauseous, filthy- 
goose pond, was a pretty just emblem of the head and heart of 
the priest, if not of the conversion of his disciples. When relig* 
ion comes in such clothing as this, men of sense and candour, 
will be apt to suspect it. Men naturally expect to see a truly 
righteous man in the possession of a • t mouth of wisdom, 
which the world cannot gainsay." He that hath not such a 
mouthy had better be silent, in religion, till fee has it given him. 
Without this, whatever a man may say in defence of religion, 
will only tend to undermine it in his own breast, and prevent 
it from taking root in the breast of others. I have not given 
the above narrative to sport with the sincerity, or to shock 
the innocent prejudices of any one, hut to show that such 
conduct has nothing to do with the kingdom of wisdom and 
holiness. But to return : What, in this climate serves to 
heighten the dissimilitude between immersion in water, and 
the temper of the truly reformed man. is, that plunging is fre- 
quently an injury to the health of the subject. It is perfect 
folly to pretend that a delicate female is not exposed to the 
most imminent danger in going into a cold frosty river; and 
after it, walking the distance of a quarter, or half mile. The 
common maxims of prudence, which nature inspires us with, 
rise up, in our minds, and involuntarily condemn such an un- 
natural practice. The advocates for plunging, ought to close 
their mouths, and seriously to question the consistency of their 
compassion towards the heathen, before they proceed to pre- 



11 

scribe a remedy, for those who are only infected with a com- 
mon malady. 

I have hitherto considered water baptism under the idea of 
immersion, or plunging, which, without controversy, was the 
only mode in which it was practised by the disciples of John, 
its reputed author. But some sects of christians, for the sake 
of keeping up at least the semblance of prudence, decency 
and propriety, have instituted sprinkling and pouring instead 
of plunging. But there is such an idea of smallness and 
disproportion even in, this mode, that I believe its advocates 
think it quite a cross to practice it before men of sense. Ac- 
tions which are at variance with good sense, will always meet 
with crosses, without ever obtaining the crown, or even the 
title of wisdom. When Jesus says, V be ye wise as serpents, 
and harmless as doves," I understand him to mean real wis- 
dom and harmlessness, which are superiour to scorn, sneers 
and ridicule ; such wisdom as will approve itself to every 
man's understanding; and such harmlessness as will be loved 
and admired among all classes of people. But whether the 
practice of water baptism makes any part of this wisdom, 
I shall leave to the consideration and judgment of the reader. 



THE SUPPER. 

This institution, or ordinance as it is sometimes called, 
though trifling, in its nature, has been made the most impor- 
tant, nay dreadful, in its consequences of any thing of the 
kind recorded in the gloomiest annals of man. And the 
single consideration, that it has become a continual evil, is 
sufficient of itself to show, that it can be no longer divine, or, 
in other words, that its celebration can no longer meet the 
approbation of Deity. The Jewish passover which was 
celebrated very much in the same manner, in which the sup- 
per now is, was probably an institution of sobriety in the 
commencement of it, but in time it became a scene of idleness 
and dissipation. The lapse of time, had worn away from 
the minds of the Israelites, the impressions made by that 
event, for the celebration of which the passover was institut- 
ed. To turn away the minds of his disciples from the ob- 
serving of this feast, as ihe Jews did, Jesus proposed to them 
a remembrance of himself, or rather the principle of truth as 
their object, when, in compliance with the Jewish law, they 
should meet to celebrate it. 



12 

fSutsnch is the nature of the mind and bod}' of man, and 
such the constitution of the world, which we inhabit, that not 
only institutions of this kind, but of every kind, in time, ex- 
pire : or they become subjects of dispute, contention and fre> 
cjuently scenes of vice, and are consequently laid aside for the 
sake of truth and harmony. The supper, like the passover of 
the Jews, is the occasion of division, animosity and hatred 
among different denominations. True wisdom, therefore, 
should lead people out of the practice of it. 

A progress, in wisdom and virtue, necessarily supposes a 
continual change, in all the exterior means, by which wear- 
rive at happiness. An institution affording the happiest enter- 
tainment to man in one degree of virtue, becomes burdensome 
and disgusting when he has reached a higher degree. Upon 
this point, any tolerable knowledge of the nature and history 
of man will be sufficient to satisfy us. The institutions of the 
Jews, however wise and appropriate in their origin, flourished 
but for a season, and in a great measure, expired. The histo- 
ries of Persia, Greece and Rome, exhibit a similar rise of a 
multitude of literary, political, and religious institutions, all 
■of which had their season of utility, of indifference, and of 
evil, and then were laid aside. No reasoning, however pow- 
erful, no exertions, however great, can long prevent such 
changes from taking place. First comes the blossom^ then 
the fruit, then the falling of the leaves* The young reptile 
knows not that it shall ever shed its coat, but feels contented 
with it, and defends it till it begins to loosen and become tat- 
tered, then the little creature perceives the propriety of throw- 
ing it off. It is something so with people who are bred up in the 
practice of a multitude of ceremonies and rites. They choose 
to continue in them, and to defend (hem, till an unexpect- 
ed growth in wisdom and virtue, has prepared them for ex- 
change. 

The celebration of the American independence, once to many 
almost inexpressibly interesting, has become nearly indiffer- 
ent, and probably in time, will become such a scene of idle- 
ness and dissipation, as to be reprobated by every man of 
virtue and wisdom* The celebration of the supper by the 
papists, was a continual occasion of animosity and hatred 
among the different orders of them, and so it is now 7 among 
the protestants. These evils ought to be regarded as faith- 
ful messengers sent to announce its fulfilment and entire abo- 
lition. Wherever there has been the greatest prevalence of 
this kind of institutions, there has invariably been the least 
virtue, equanimity and charity. The first celebration of the 



13 

American independence was attended with a great deal of 
gratitude and mutual good will, but now it is regarded merely 
as a season for the display of talents and parade. Every one 
must see that nature herself works this change, and that too 
for the best interest of the human kind. 

One pretty uniform evil attending these institutions, is, that 
people get into the habit of confining almost their whole pleas- 
ure to the celebration of them. The intervals between the 
seasons of celebrating them, become painful, and, with the 
youthful part of a community, are often sources of extreme 
anxiety. They take the minds of young people away from 
their daily concerns in which they should learn to be happy, 
and dispose them to contemplate distant pleasures ; against 
that admirable maxim of scripture "be not solicitous for the 
morrow." And, although the supper is an aged institution, 
and the object of its celebration so far concealed by the rav- 
age of ages, that, with most of its advocates, it has become 
tasteless and indifferent ; yet, when young people first com- 
mence a celebration of it, its novelty affords them not a little 
entertainment. But its novelty soon wears off, and they are 
surprised to find themselves so indifferent to what once afford- 
ed thern entertainment, and to which they looked for a perpet- 
ual source of pleasure ; little thinking that Nature had wrought 
this change for some useful purpose ; for the purpose of let- 
ting them" pass on, to some greater and more useful attain- 
ments. And although the bitterest weed may become sweet, 
by frequent and uniform use, the celebration of the supper, 
has not even this advantage. It is one of those lifeless, dead- 
ning kind of works for which Paul so frequently reproved 
the Jews. To celebrate it according to the supposed design 
of the institution, requires a stretch of the imagination, which 
but few are capable of, and those few must be unable to en- 
dure so bold a flight for any length of time. 

The papists who painted Jesus of Nazareth upon a can- 
vass, with his pierced side and transfixed hands and feet, 
exercised much more judgment, in the celebration of his 
death, than protestants do, who only use so faint a symbol of 
his death and sufferings, as a small slice of bread and a cup 
of wine. Meat would be a much livelier symbol than bread, 
and would be found to be an article much more general 
among the different inhabitants of the globe. 

Bread and wine are not the growth of every climate ; so 
that when the protestant, or catholick religion, is intro- 
duced into a climate destitute of these articles, something 
>lse must be substituted. This consideration proves that 



14 

ifels institution, like water baptism, is the creature of a 
ulav climate. 

But the ordinance of the supper never was a positive in 
don. It naturally grew out of a certain occasK which 

Jesus met with his disciples. I will give the a 
origin of this institution, in the words of the Ik I 

to Matthew. " Now the first day of unleavened bi 
disciples came to Jesus, saying to him, Where wilt thou 
that we prepare for thee to eat the passover. And he said, 
go ye into the city,- to such a man, and say unte him. the mas- 
ter saith, my time is at hand, I will eat the passover at thy 
house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had 
appointed them ; and they made ready the passover. Now 
when even was come he sat down with the twelve. And as 
they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, 'and gave 
it to the disciples, and said, take, eat, this is my bod). And 
tie took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, 
Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the new testament, 
which is shed for many for the remission of sins." From this 
description, J ask in what did this supper differ from any sup- 
per, among the Jews ? Jesus broke the bread and gave it to 
them, and told them to eat it." At the same time, he signified 
by this, that his body was soon to be broken somewhat in 
the same manner. The analogy between the two things could 
bardiy help suggesting itself. He then pours out the wine, 
the common drink of the table, and told them to drink that. 
For his blood was soon to be poured out in like manner 

In the history of Luke, Jesus is reported to have said, on 
that occasion, " This do in remembrance of me." But nei- 
ther this clause, nor any other part of the account, conveys 
the least idea, that the disciples were ever after that, to do it 
in remembrance of him. When the supper is mentioned in 
Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, the words, " as oft as ye do 
it, do it in remembrance of me," are added. Jesus at a cer- 
tain time, told two of his disciples to go into a village over 
against them, and bring a colt which was tied there. Now 
because Jesus gave his first disciples this command, is it there- 
fore obligatory upon us? But if one command given to his 
first disciples is obligatory upon us, I see not why all even 
the most local and particular. Since all those commands 
were given to the first disciples, what rule shall we have to 
inform us what ones are obligatory upon us, and what void oi 
•obligation ? 

In all the positive institutions of the scriptures there is a 
penalty annexed to the neglect of them* Those who did not 



13 

keep the passorer were to be punished with death. But we 
see nothing of this kind, annexed to the neglect of celebrating 
the supper. In all the institutions of Moses the time of their 
being kept was specified ; they were to be kept forever. But 
Je?us said nothing to future generations ; his commands were 
confined to his immediate disciples. 

But what shows the greatest inconsistency of papists and 
protestants, is, their neglect of an ordinance which, according 
to the scripture account of it, stands upon a much firmer 
ground, than either baptism or the supper. I refer to the 
washing of feet. According to the history ascribed to John, 
it was after this same supper of bread and wine had ended, 
that Jesus gave his disciples an example of washing each 
others' feet. The account reads thtis : " Jesus riseth from 
supper and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and 
girded himself. AfLer that he poured water into a basin, 
and began to wash his disciples' feet, and to wipe them with 
the towel wherewith he -was girded. When he had done 
washing their feet he says to them, " / have given you an 
example, that ye should do, even as I have done to you. n 
And when Peter objected to having Jesus wash his feet, Je- 
sus said unto hita, " except I wCtsh thy feet thou hast no part 
with me," From this account, it will be seen that the wash- 
ing of feet, is much more explicitly commanded, than either 
of the other ordinances. And certainly the washing of feet, 
is fully as much an emblem of a clean heart, as plunging or 
sprinkling is; and it is capable of a much more general 
piactice. 

The argument, that baptism and the supper are mentioned 
as having been practised after the death of Jesus, is much 
stronger in favour of the washing of feet. The supper is men- 
tioned but once after the death of Jesus ; and the washing of 
feet once. In Paul's instructions to Timothy (f. Tim. 
chap. 5) the washing of feet is made one condition of a wid- 
ow's being taken into the society of christians. •' Let not a 
widow be taken into the number under three score years old, 
having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good 
works ; if she have brought up children, it' she have lodged 
strangers, if she have washed the disciples' feet ; if she have 
relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every 
good work," she may be taken into the number. 

Now I ask what kind of deference to the authority of Jesus,, 
that is, which says to him, We acknowledge all thy institu- 
tions and commandments to be obligatory upon us, and that 
k is impious and even blasphemous to disobey them, but still 



16 

We wiM practice just such ones as we have a mind to. It is 
true, that the practice of washing feet, in the present state of 
society, would be rather too indelicate for that class of men, 
who wish to be thought eminently modest and reserved. But 
wine is a very fashionable drink ; and bread a very fashiona- 
ble article of food Sprinkling too is quite a modest and del- 
icate manner of baptizing,. These inconsistencies show 
great insincerity, and have become a matter of note among the 
greatest and best of men. The more these ordinances and 
institutions are varied to suit the fashions of the times, the 
more ridiculous do their votaries appear, and the more dis- 
gusting will their religion be, in the eyes of candid and vir- 
tuous men. Says the poet 

** Fit means and euds make wisdom." 

Aiad I would add ; that inconsistences make folly, 






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